Maya Angelou: 1928-2014
In honor of Maya Angelou, who died today at age 86, I offer the following lines from her poem "A Brave and Startling Truth":
"When we come to it
We, this people, on this minuscule and kithless globe
Who reach daily for the bomb, the blade and the dagger
Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of peace
We, this people on this mote of matter
In whose mouths abide cankerous words
Which challenge our very existence
Yet out of those same mouths
Come songs of such exquisite sweetness
That the heart falters in its labor
And the body is quieted into awe"