Poet of the Month

November's Featured Poet
Maya Angelou (1928-) grew up in St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas. Highlights of her career: At 14 she won a scholarship in dance & drama and subsequently toured Europe in Porgy and Bess. She studied under Martha Graham and danced with Alvin Ailey. She’s authored over 30 strongly selling works of fiction, non-fiction, and verse. She wrote the screenplay and composed the score of the 1972 film Georgia, Georgia, and directed the feature film, Down in the Delta in 2008. She’s probably best known for “On the Pulse of the Morning,” her inaugural poem for President Clinton.

Conceit
Give me your hand
Make room for me to lead and follow

you
beyond this rage of poetry.

Let others have
the privacy of
touching words
and love of loss
of love.

For me
Give me your hand.

Further Reading: The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou

Next Month: Lewis Carroll

Content developed by local resident and poet Leland Jamieson, author of:

21st Century Bread (2007)

In Vitro : New Short Rhyming Poems Post-9/11 (2009)