“The poetry you read has been written for you, each of you—black, white, Hispanic, man, woman, gay, straight.”
Today we bow down to Maya Angelou, a remarkable voice of the contemporary literature, a renowned poet, actress, civil-rights activist. She passed away at the age of 86 after weeks of poor health. In his tribute to the Phenomenal woman, president of the USA, Barack Obama called Angelou “one of the brightest lights of our time”.
She was a woman of many identities, but her voice was unique. In her poems she gave an eloquent commentary on race, gender and living life at its fullest. Her poems are embracing life as it is, and are truly celebratory, pointing both to the injustices and the beauties of the world. For her memoir “I know why the cage bird sings” she received wide critical acclaim.
Inspired by her remarkable life, wisdom and work and we share some of her notable words.
“Courage is the most important of all virtues because without courage you can’t practise any of the other virtues consistently.”
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.”
“Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.”
“Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.”
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