Rest in peace. The uncaged bird will always sing.

• RE: Maya Angelou (86),moonbaby, 10:04 AM, 05-28-14
  • RE: Maya Angelou (86),kingfish, 10:30 AM, 05-28-14
• RE: Maya Angelou (86),PepeLePew13, 11:52 AM, 05-28-14
• RE: Maya Angelou (86),Estee, 02:42 PM, 05-28-14
• RE: Maya Angelou (86),dabo, 03:36 PM, 05-28-14
• RE: Maya Angelou (86),Capn2patch, 09:36 AM, 05-29-14
  • RE: Maya Angelou (86),kingfish, 08:23 AM, 05-30-14
    • RE: Maya Angelou (86),Capn2patch, 10:19 AM, 05-30-14
• RE: Maya Angelou (86),cahaya, 10:30 PM, 05-30-14
• I did not know..,dabo, 11:46 AM, 06-01-14

When Great Trees Fall

When great trees fall,
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
lumber after safety.

When great trees fall
in forests,
small things recoil into silence,
their senses
eroded beyond fear.

When great souls die,
the air around us becomes
light, rare, sterile.
We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,
see with
a hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened,
examines,
gnaws on kind words
unsaid,
promised walks
never taken.

Great souls die and
our reality, bound to
them, takes leave of us.
Our souls,
dependent upon their
nurture,
now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed
and informed by their
radiance,
fall away.
We are not so much maddened
as reduced to the unutterable ignorance
of dark, cold
caves.

And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.
― Maya Angelou

Aunty Maya.

RIP.

An American/World treasure.

Rest in peace, Maya.

Two quotes I've frequently used in my class to illustrate a point:

"Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it."

"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain."

Don't read any Internet news articles about her passing. The commentary sections...

*sigh*

...you can guess.

Anyway... thanks given to our laureate. And you may want to look up her Twitter account. Her final-for-now post was an interesting one.

Also, since we're noting the passing of those who've affected America, let's say goodbye to Don Levine, who may have brought more people into the military than the draft.

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/don-levine-gi-joe-obituary/

I fully expect his commentary sections to go anti-Semitic within three posts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPiUHhQ_xXs&feature=share

her last tweet:

Listen to yourself and in that quietude you might hear the voice of God.

LAST EDITED ON 05-30-14 AT 08:53 AM (EST)

I think that the title to her early book " I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" is one of most elegant and emotional titles of all time. Ranks with Hemmingway and Harper Lee, IMO. A song, a poem, and a novel just in the title.

There is a line she wrote that goes something like 'if you settle for an ordinary life, you will cheat yourself of the extraordinary'. Don't quote me on the wording, but it always motivated me.

Amen, sister.

Light and life by smokeysmom

.. that it was supposed to be a secret.

Sex