Can we stop pretending we enjoy reading maya

Angelou poems.

Feel bAd she passed, but her poems were Awful

I hated her stuff. I am sorry she passed as a lot of her family probably loved her, but I didn't know she was alive. And I promise you, her poetry never "lived" in me.

MasonGuy wrote:I hated her stuff.  I am sorry she passed as a lot of her family probably loved her, but I didn't know she was alive.  And I promise you, her poetry never "lived" in me.

Not even in your top 10 African American female poets?

Maybe take a moment and stop thinking like a 20th century privileged white person and try to see the world from the view point of a black woman who lived through Jim Crow.  Her words are words of defiance and encouragement to an entire people that were displaced to be slaves in a country not their own and who TO THIS DAY live lives markedly inferior to their white counterparts.  Her work is as much part of the history of America as Katharine Lee Bates or Francis Scott Key.

Also, read a little: The Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

Don't you dare bring Francis Scott Key into this discussion!
Really, I fell asleep half way thru your post.

Hut1hut2 wrote:Don't you dare bring Francis Scott Key into this discussion!
Really, I fell asleep half way thru your post.

What are you, 12? Type out complete words, you dunce.

THROUGH.

R u 90?
Who uses the word dunce?

Now I am glad maya is dead

Hut1hut2 wrote:R u 90?
Who uses the word dunce?

Now I am glad maya is dead

Well it's only one syllable so I'm surprised it isn't in your vocabulary.

Probably just a few more posts needed before charges of racism are thrown around at those not proclaiming Angelou as the greatest literary mind of all time...

xsanguine wrote:Probably just a few more posts needed before charges of racism are thrown around at those not proclaiming Angelou as the greatest literary mind of all time...

Don't worry X, I think you're racist regardless of what you say.

Rocinante wrote:

Don't worry X, I think you're racist regardless of what you say.

Exactly. That's my point.

Rocinante wrote:

Well it's only one syllable so I'm surprised it isn't in your vocabulary.

My u r a witty one.

If poetry wasn't force fed I may feel about it differently.

She was a late 20th century poet turned celebrity primarily by electronic media (TV).

Poetry has been going downhill ever since Dr. Seuss died...

The cat in the hat knows a lot about that

Rocinante wrote:Maybe take a moment and stop thinking like a 20th century privileged white person and try to see the world from the view point of a black woman who lived through Jim Crow.  Her words are words of defiance and encouragement to an entire people that were displaced to be slaves in a country not their own and who TO THIS DAY live lives markedly inferior to their white counterparts.  Her work is as much part of the history of America as Katharine Lee Bates or Francis Scott Key.

Also, read a little: The Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

I'm not a big fan of poetry, but that's a good piece of work. I can see why the usual righties dislike her.

xsanguine wrote:Probably just a few more posts needed before charges of racism are thrown around at those not proclaiming Angelou as the greatest literary mind of all time...

That's dishonest and weak. Why do you pretend to be so persecuted?

Pervis Muldoon wrote:

That's dishonest and weak.  Why do you pretend to be so persecuted?

Have you ever heard of hyperbole? This isn't exactly a serious thread. Relax.

Who's acting persecuted?

if she were white, she'd be just another lonely old woman who sat around trying to write stuff that belongs in a Hallmark card....

I hate having all of this feel-good black woman stuff pushed down my throat by a complicit media..

Robert J Sakimano wrote:if she were white, she'd be just another lonely old woman who sat around trying to write stuff that belongs in a Hallmark card....

I hate having all of this feel-good black woman stuff pushed down my throat by a complicit media..

+1

xsanguine wrote:

Have you ever heard of hyperbole? This isn't exactly a serious thread. Relax.

Who's acting persecuted?

You've never struck me as a tongue-in-cheek kind of guy.

Pervis Muldoon wrote:

You've never struck me as a tongue-in-cheek kind of guy.

As more numbskulls migrate over here by word of mouth I imagine these types of threads will become commonplace and shadow out those that have the potential for actual discussion. It'll become Wells before too long.