I have been reading Maya Angelou’s poetry for a long while now and I was too excited to dive myself into her complete collected poetry to not like it. Needless to say I am in awe, awe of the writer in her, awe of the poet, in awe of her womanhood, in complete awe of herself.

I won’t do justice to her book if I am to review it, so instead I will just say that her poetries are not for a weak heart. Not everyone will get her despite the usage of her most simplistic thoughts and words. Her works require a brave soul and an open mind to sink and revel in what a woman of colour has to say. Not everyone will appreciate the difference in understanding but that is where this needs to be referred to as a piece of classic. 

Brilliance! Fierce! Brutally honest! Beautiful!

To be honest, of course I am not a fan of all the poems in here but the ones that I loved were so wonderful that I could not help but fall for the collection whole heartedly. Some of my favourites would be ‘Still I rise’,  ‘Phenomenol Woman’, ‘Seven Women’s Blessed Assurance’, ‘Loss of Love’, ‘Preacher, Don’t Send Me’ and a few more. 

I shall conclude by a few of my favourite lines here:

“It’s the fire in my eyes,   

And the flash of my teeth,   

The swing in my waist,   

And the joy in my feet.   

I’m a woman

Phenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,

That’s me.”

From Preacher, “Don’t Send Me’: 

“I’d call a place

pure paradise

where families are loyal

and strangers are nice,

where the music is jazz

and the season is fall.

Promise me that

or nothing at all.”

I’d call that a paradise too, especially today with one sad news after another all we could ask for is strangers to be nice, and simply pass on a smile with or without a reason. Who knows we might as well make this place a paradise?

That’s all I want to say, no reviews, no stories, no poems, only an agony to be relieved via words. There is no better calm today, there can never be, she tells me again and again, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” So, I will not keep it inside, I will speak, I will remain silent, I will cry, I will smile, I will do what it takes to keep me sane. 

In spite of everything, I still believe people are really good at heart” From The Diary of Anne Frank. If she can have faith, I think we all can have too.