~Submitted by Savitri Ingga Talahatu~ This morning my sister asked me to choose a poem by Dr. Maya Angelou, in honor of her birthday today… I immediately said, "Yes", without even thinking about the vast body of Dr. Angelou's literary works over the decades and that important question of "which ONE?" Dr. Angelou's works have accompanied me in my life's journey since I was a naive young woman in teacher's college in early '80s. When I was transforming my tomboy-ish existence into that of a woman, I adored her "Phenomenal Woman". When I left a budding career with UNHCR and found myself as a new immigrant in Canada in the early '90s, her "Alone" and "Still I Rise" spoke to me profoundly. And then there is her first and most highly acclaimed poem, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969)", a truthful and most sincere account of the first seventeen years of her life. Over the year...
Women's Spiritual Poetry