Maya

photo credit: fenixrysing

I cannot get enough of Maya Angelou right now. I have never read her works, but these past few weeks, I have been fascinated by her. I think because football season is over, P is gone, and I am making my own schedule these days, I have been turning off the t.v. more and more. I used to keep it on all the time whenever P was out of town, but lately, I have been desiring quiet. Even now as I sit here, I just want quiet. I have always been a reader, but when the t.v. is off, I find that I read even more than I do already.
I am currently reading "I know why the Caged Bird Sings." I cannot stop reading. It is fascinating. Her poetry is good, but it is nothing compared to her literary words. It is a story of hope, tragedy, and triumph.
I saw an interview with her and it moved me, it stirred me. Here is a recap of the interview that I found fascinating.
Maya: "I learned that words have power, and I learned that my words could kill. I had been raped by a man, and he told me if I said anything he would kill my brother, my beloved older brother. Eventually my mother found out, and one night a police officer came to the house and told us the man had been killed. I realized then that my words could kill. So, I stopped speaking, and I was mute for several years.
We were shipped to live with my grandmother is Stamps, Arkansas.
In Stamps one of the ladies in town took a liking to me and she would bring me books from the white school. I fell in love with poetry. One day the lady said to me, Maya, you don't like poetry. I took out a paper and wrote, yes, I love poetry. She said, you will never love poetry until you speak it, until it come from your mouth, from your tongue, and until it does you will never love poetry.
A few months later I was reading Shakespeare, and his words were so sad and passionate, that I was convinced that he too, was a black girl from the South who had also been raped. So one day I crawled under my grandma's house where the chickens were and I read poetry, and I realized, my voice had not left me, I had left my voice."

I took so much away from that interview that I simply had to read her words, feel her love of words, and learn to love words the way she does.