The complete poetry

Title:

The complete poetry

Author:

Angelou, Maya.

ISBN:

9780812997873

9780812997880

Personal Author:

Angelou, Maya.

Uniform Title:

Poems

Edition:

First edition.

Publication Information:

New York : Random House, [2015]

Physical Description:

xvii, 308 pages ; 25 cm

Contents:

Just give me a cool drink of water 'fore I diiie -- pt. I. Where love is a scream of anguish -- They went home -- The gamut -- A Zorro man -- To a man -- Late October -- No loser, no weeper -- When you come to me -- Remembering -- In a time -- Tears -- The detached -- To a husband -- Accident -- Let's majeste -- After -- The mothering blackness -- On diverse deviations -- Mourning grace -- How can I lie to you -- Sounds like pearls -- pt. II. Just before the world ends -- When I think about myself -- On a bright day, next week -- Letter to an aspiring junkie -- Miss Scarlett, Mr. Rhett and other latter-day saints -- Times-Square-shoeshine-composition -- Faces -- To a freedom fighter -- Riot : 60's -- We saw beyond our seeming -- Black ode -- No no no no --- My guilt -- The calling of names -- On working White liberals -- Sepia fashion show -- The thirteens (Black) -- The thirteens (White) -- Harlem hopscotch.

Oh pray my wings are gonna fit me well -- pt. I. Pickin em up and layin em down -- Here's to adhering -- On reaching forty -- The telephone -- pt. II. Passing time -- Now long ago -- Greyday -- Poor girl -- Come, and be my baby -- Senses of insecurity -- Alone -- Communication I -- Communication II -- Wonder -- A conceit -- pt. III. Request -- Africa -- America -- For us, who dare not dare -- Lord, in my heart -- Artful pose -- pt. IV. The couple -- The pusher -- Chicken-Licken -- pt. V.I almost remember -- Prisoner -- Woman me -- John J. -- Southeast Arkanasia -- Song for the old ones -- Child dead in old seas -- Take time out -- Elegy -- Reverses -- Little girl speakings -- This winter day.

And still I rise -- pt. I. Touch me, life, not softly -- A kind of love, some say -- Country lover -- Remembrance -- Where we belong, a duet -- Phenomenal woman -- Men -- Refusal -- Just for a time -- pt. II. Traveling -- Junkie monkey reel -- The lesson -- California prodigal -- My Arkansas -- Through the inner city to the suburbs -- Lady luncheon club -- Momma welfare roll -- The singer will not sing -- Willie -- To beat the child was bad enough -- Woman work -- One more round -- The traveler -- Kin -- The memory -- pt. III. And still I rise -- Still I rise -- Ain't that bad? -- Life doesn't frighten me -- Bump d'bump -- On aging -- In retrospect -- Just like Job -- Call letters : Mrs. V.B. -- Thank you, Lord.

Shaker, why don't you sing? -- Awaking in New York -- A good woman feeling bad -- The health-food diner -- A Georgia song -- Unmeasured tempo -- Amoebaean for Daddy -- Recovery -- Impeccable conception -- Caged bird -- Avec merci, Mother -- Arrival -- A plagued journey -- Starvation -- Contemporary announcement -- Prelude to a parting -- Martial choreograph -- To a suitor -- Insomniac -- Weekend glory -- The lie -- Prescience -- Family affairs -- Changes -- Brief innocence -- The last decision -- Slave coffee -- Shaker, why don't you sing? -- My life has turned to blue.

I shall not be moved -- Worker's song -- Human family -- Man bigot -- Old folks laugh -- Is love -- Forgive -- Insignificant -- Love letter -- Equality -- Coleridge Jackson -- Why are they happy people? -- Son to mother -- Known to Eve and me -- These yet to be United States -- Me and my work -- Changing -- Born that way -- Televised -- Nothing much -- Glory falls -- London -- Savior -- Many and more -- The new house -- Our grandmothers -- Preacher, don't send me -- Fightin' was natural -- Loss of love -- Seven women's blessed assurance -- In my Missouri -- They ask why -- When great trees fall.

On the pulse of morning -- Celebrations -- A brave and startling truth -- Continue -- Sons and daughters -- A Black woman speaks to Black manhood -- Amazing peace -- Mother : a cradle to hold me -- In and out of time -- Ben Lear's bar mitzvah -- Vigil -- Prayer -- Amazement awaits -- His day is done.

Abstract:

Throughout her illustrious career in letters, Maya Angelou gifted, healed, and inspired the world with her words. Now the beauty and spirit of those words live on in this new and complete collection of poetry that reflects and honors the writer's remarkable life.

Language Note:

Text in English.

Subject Term:

African Americans -- Poetry.

Genre:

Poetry.

Document ID:

SD_ILS:2322068

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Library	Collection	Collection	Call Number	Status
Searching... Beale Memorial Library (Kern Co.)	Searching... Unknown	Adult Non-Fiction	811.54 Angelou May ANG	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Betty Rodriguez Library (Fresno Co.)	Searching... Unknown	Non-fiction Area	811 ANG	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Delano Branch Library (Kern Co.)	Searching... Unknown	Adult Non-Fiction	811.54 Angelou May ANG	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Gillis Branch Library (Fresno Co.)	Searching... Unknown	Non-fiction Area	811 ANG	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Rathbun Branch Library (Kern Co.)	Searching... Unknown	Adult Non-Fiction	811.54 Angelou May ANG	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Sanger Branch Library (Fresno Co.)	Searching... Unknown	Non-fiction Area	811 ANG	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Tulare Public Library	Searching... Unknown	Adult Non-fiction	811.54 Ang	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

The beauty and spirit of Maya Angelou's words live on in this complete collection of poetry , including her inaugural poem "On the Pulse of Morning"

Throughout her illustrious career in letters, Maya Angelou gifted, healed, and inspired the world with her words. Now the beauty and spirit of those words live on in this new and complete collection of poetry that reflects and honors the writer's remarkable life.

Every poetic phrase, every poignant verse can be found within the pages of this sure-to-be-treasured volume--from her reflections on African American life and hardship in the compilation Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie ("Though there's one thing that I cry for / I believe enough to die for / That is every man's responsibility to man") to her revolutionary celebrations of womanhood in the poem "Still I Rise" ("Out of the huts of history's shame / I rise / Up from a past that's rooted in pain / I rise") to her "On the Pulse of Morning" tribute at President William Jefferson Clinton's inauguration ("Lift up your eyes upon / The day breaking for you. / Give birth again / To the dream.").

Maya Angelou: The Complete Poetry also features her final long-form poems, including "A Brave and Startling Truth," "Amazing Peace," "His Day Is Done," and the honest and endearing Mother:

"I feared if I let you go
You would leave me eternally.
You smiled at my fears, saying
I could not stay in your lap forever"

This collection also includes the never-before-published poem "Amazement Awaits," commissioned for the 2008 Olympic Games:

"We are here at the portal of the world we had wished for
At the lintel of the world we most need.
We are here roaring and singing.
We prove that we can not only make peace, we can bring it with us."

Timeless and prescient, this definitive compendium will warm the hearts of Maya Angelou's most ardent admirers as it introduces new readers to the legendary poet, activist, and teacher--a phenomenal woman for the ages.

Author Notes

Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Annie Johnson on April 4, 1928 in Saint Louis, Missouri. At the age of 16, she became not only the first black streetcar conductor in San Francisco but the first woman conductor. In the mid-1950s, she toured Europe with a production of the opera Porgy and Bess. In 1957, she recorded her first album, Calypso Lady. In 1958, she became a part of the Harlem Writers Guild in New York and played a queen in The Blacks, an off-Broadway production by French dramatist Jean Genet.

In 1960, she moved to Cairo, where she edited The Arab Observer, an English-language weekly newspaper. The following year, she went to Ghana where she was features editor of The African Review and taught music and drama at the University of Ghana. In 1964, she moved back to the U.S. to become a civil rights activist by helping Malcolm X build his new coalition, the Organization of African American Unity, and became the northern coordinator of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Even though she never went to college, she taught American studies for years at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem. In 1993, she became only the second poet in United States history to write and recite an original poem at a Presidential Inauguration when she read On the Pulse of Morning at President Bill Clinton's Inauguration Ceremony. She wrote numerous books during her lifetime including: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Die, All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes, Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now, and Mom and Me and Mom. In 2011, President Barack Obama gave her the Medal of Freedom, the country's highest civilian honor, for her collected works of poetry, fiction and nonfiction.

She appeared in the movie Roots and was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in 1977 for her role in the movie. She also played a part in the movie, How to Make an American Quilt and wrote and produced Afro-Americans in the Arts, a PBS special for which she received a Golden Eagle Award. She was a three-time Grammy winner. She died on May 28, 2014 at the age of 86.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Excerpts

They Went Home They went home and told their wives, that never once in all their lives, had they known a girl like me, But ... They went home. They said my house was licking clean, no word I spoke was ever mean, I had an air of mystery, But ... They went home. My praises were on all men's lips, they liked my smile, my wit, my hips, they'd spend one night, or two or three. But ... The Gamut Soft you day, be velvet soft, My true love approaches, Look you bright, you dusty sun, Array your golden coaches. Soft you wind, be soft as silk, My true love is speaking. Hold you birds, your silver throats, His golden voice I'm seeking. Come you death, in haste, do come, My shroud of black be weaving, Quiet my heart, be deathly quiet, My true love is leaving. A Zorro Man Here in the wombed room silk purple drapes flash a light as subtle as your hands before love-making Here in the covered lens I catch a clitoral image of your general inhabitation long and like a late dawn in winter Here this clean mirror traps me unwilling in a gone time when I was love and you were booted and brave and trembling for me. To a Man My man is Black Golden Amber Changing. Warm mouths of Brandy Fine Cautious sunlight on a patterned rug Coughing laughter, rocked on a whorl of French tobacco Graceful turns on woolen stilts Secretive? A cat's eye. Southern. Plump and tender with navy-bean sullenness And did I say "Tender"? The gentleness A big cat stalks through stubborn bush And did I mention "Amber"? The heatless fire consuming itself. Again. Anew. Into ever neverlessness. My man is Amber Changing Always into itself New. Now New. Still itself. Still. Late October Carefully the leaves of autumn sprinkle down the tinny sound of little dyings and skies sated of ruddy sunsets of roseate dawns roil ceaselessly in cobweb greys and turn to black for comfort. Only lovers see the fall a signal end to endings a gruffish gesture alerting those who will not be alarmed that we begin to stop in order simply to begin again. No Loser, No Weeper "I hate to lose something," then she bent her head, "even a dime, I wish I was dead. I can't explain it. No more to be said. 'Cept I hate to lose something. "I lost a doll once and cried for a week. She could open her eyes, and do all but speak. I believe she was took, by some doll-snatching sneak. I tell you, I hate to lose something. "A watch of mine once, got up and walked away. It had twelve numbers on it and for the time of day. I'll never forget it and all I can say Is I really hate to lose something. "Now if I felt that way 'bout a watch and a toy, What you think I feel 'bout my lover-boy? I ain't threatening you, madam, but he is my evening's joy. And I mean I really hate to lose something." When You Come to Me When you come to me, unbidden, Beckoning me To long-ago rooms, Where memories lie. Offering me, as to a child, an attic, Gatherings of days too few, Baubles of stolen kisses, Trinkets of borrowed loves, Trunks of secret words, I CRY. Remembering Soft grey ghosts crawl up my sleeve to peer into my eyes while I within deny their threats and answer them with lies. Mushlike memories perform a ritual on my lips I lie in stolid hopelessness and they lay my soul in strips. In a Time In a time of secret wooing Today prepares tomorrow's ruin Left knows not what right is doing My heart is torn asunder. In a time of furtive sighs Sweet hellos and sad goodbyes Half-truths told and entire lies My conscience echoes thunder. In a time when kingdoms come Joy is brief as summer's fun Happiness its race has run Then pain stalks in to plunder. Tears Tears The crystal rags Viscous tatters of a worn-through soul. Moans Deep swan song Blue farewell of a dying dream. The Detached We die, Welcoming Bluebeards to our darkening closets, Stranglers to our outstretched necks, Stranglers, who neither care nor care to know that DEATH IS INTERNAL. We pray, Savoring sweet the teethed lies, Bellying the grounds before alien gods, Gods, who neither know nor wish to know that HELL IS INTERNAL. We love, Rubbing the nakednesses with gloved hands, Inverting our mouths in tongued kisses, Kisses that neither touch nor care to touch if LOVE IS INTERNAL. To a Husband Your voice at times a fist Tight in your throat Jabs ceaselessly at phantoms In the room, Your hand a carved and Skimming boat Goes down the Nile To point out Pharaoh's tomb. You're Africa to me At brightest dawn. The Congo's green and Copper's brackish hue, A continent to build With Black Man's brawn. I sit at home and see it all Through you. Excerpted from Maya Angelou - The Complete Poetry by Maya Angelou All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.