Touch Of Love Poetry, Poet Maya Angelou, Accessible Print

Accessible Print

Poet Maya Angelou
Her Life

Maya Angelou has the ability to weave words that reach in and touch you at the souls core. Her words feed memories and bring vivid realization to our lives. Each time I read her poetry I can see the young child she once was, or the young woman trying to find her way, or even a small touch of who she is now.

I thank her for opening my eyes, touching my heart and showing me the way it was and is...

Maya Angelou is a poet, historian, author, actress, playwright, civil-rights activist, producer and director. She lectures throughout the US and abroad and is Reynolds professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. She has published ten best selling books and countless magazine articles. At the request of President Clinton, she wrote and delivered a poem at the 1993 presidential inauguration.

Dr. Angelou began her career in drama and dance. She married a South African freedom fighter and lived in Cairo where she was editor of The Arab Observer, the only English-language news weekly in the Middle East.

In Ghana, she was feature editor of The African Review and taught at the University of Ghana. In the 1960s, at the request of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,

Ms. Angelou became the northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. She was appointed by President Gerald Ford to the Bicentennial Commission and by President Jimmy Carter to the National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year.

In the film industry, through her work in script writing and directing, Maya Angelou has been a groundbreaker for black women.

In television, she has made hundreds of appearances. Her renowned autobiographical account of her youth, "I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings," was a two hour TV special on CBS.

She has written and produced several prize winning documentaries, including "Afro-Americans in the Arts," a PBS special for which she received the Golden Eagle Award. Dr. Angelou speaks French, Spanish, Italian and West African Fanti.

Touched by an Angel
by Maya Angelou - 1995
We, unaccustomed to courage exiles from delight live coiled in shells of loneliness until love leaves its high holy temple and comes into our sight to liberate us into life.

Love arrives and in its train come ecstasies old memories of pleasure ancient histories of pain.

Yet if we are bold, love strikes away the chains of fear from our souls.

We are weaned from our timidity In the flush of love's light we dare be brave And suddenly we see that love costs all we are and will ever be.

Yet it is only love which sets us free.

Maya Angelou:

The Heart of a Woman; A Flowering Career, a Growing Son-A Powerful Personal Narrative, by Maya Angelou, Hardcover, Published September 1997

The Heart of a Woman, by Maya Angelou, Paperback, Published June 1997 (Autobiography continued.)

Even the Stars Look Lonesome, by Maya Angelou, Hardcover

Wouldn't Take Nothing For My Journey Now
by Maya Angelou, Paperback, Published November 1994 (Wisdom of her life.)

The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou
by Maya Angelou, Paperback, Published September 1994 (Poetry.)

I Shall Not Be Moved
by Maya Angelou, Paperback, Published Novemeber 1991 (Poetry.)

Singin' and Swingin' and Getting Merry Like Christmas
by Maya Angelou, Paperback, Published April 1985 (Memoir.)

Gather Together In My Name
by Maya Angelou, Paperback, Published February 1985 (Autobiography continued.)

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
by Maya Angelou, Paperback, Published May 1983 (Childhood memoir.)

Sources of Quotations:

"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," 1970.
"The Heart of a Woman," 1981.
"Black Women Writers at Work, ed. C. Tate, 1983.
"All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes."
"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," 1970.

Quotations:

If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.

There's a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure truth.

Talent is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it. You can plug into it and light up a lamp, keep a heart pump going, light a cathedral, or you can electrocute a person with it.

The thorn from the bush one has planted, nourished and pruned pricks more deeply and draws more blood.

Children's talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives.

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