On Aging. By Maya Angelou.

When you see me sitting quietly, 

Like a sack left on the shelf, 

Don’t think I need your chattering. 

I’m listening to myself. 

Hold! Stop! Don’t pity me! 

Hold! Stop your sympathy! 

Understanding if you got it, 

Otherwise I’ll do without it! 

When my bones are stiff and aching, 

And my feet won’t climb the stair, 

I will only ask one favor: 

Don’t bring me no rocking chair. 

When you see me walking, stumbling, 

Don’t study and get it wrong. 

‘Cause tired don’t mean lazy 

And every goodbye ain’t gone. 

I’m the same person I was back then, 

A little less hair, a little less chin, 

A lot less lungs and much less wind. 

But ain’t I lucky I can still breathe in.

Maya Angelou

- - - - - - -

photograph via

Caged Bird, by Maya Angelou

"Maya Angelou’s poem “Caged Bird,” published in 1983, is a celebration of African American resilience and dignity. Employing a simple metaphor — birds — Angelou powerfully evokes the pain and rage of one who is oppressed by contrasting it with the carefree and willful ignorance of one who is free." (via)



The free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wings
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings
with fearful trill
of the things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom

The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn
and he names the sky his own.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing

The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom

Maya Angelou

- - - - - -
photograph via

Equality, by Maya Angelou

"Throughout Equality, there are clear themes of discrimination, which line up with Angelou’s public contributions towards the fight for civil rights. Her own experiences make it very likely that she is the narrator of the poem" (for more poem analysis see).



You declare you see me dimly
through a glass which will not shine,
though I stand before you boldly,
trim in rank and marking time.
You do own to hear me faintly
as a whisper out of range,
while my drums beat out the message
and the rhythms never change.

Equality, and I will be free.
Equality, and I will be free.



You announce my ways are wanton,
that I fly from man to man,
but if I'm just a shadow to you,
could you ever understand ?

We have lived a painful history,
we know the shameful past,
but I keep on marching forward,
and you keep on coming last.

Equality, and I will be free.
Equality, and I will be free.

Take the blinders from your vision,
take the padding from your ears,
and confess you've heard me crying,
and admit you've seen my tears.

Hear the tempo so compelling,
hear the blood throb in my veins.
Yes, my drums are beating nightly,
and the rhythms never change.

Equality, and I will be free.
Equality, and I will be free.

Maya Angelou

- - - - - - - -
photographs by Jill Krementz via and via, copyright by owner

Harlem Hopscotch

"She loved everything, from pop to country and, of course, hip-hop. With her dedication to social activism and how she illuminated the struggles and injustices of the urban experience through prose, there's a direct correlation to hip-hop today." "She was really excited about her street-wise commentary being presented in this way." 
Colin Johnson, Maya Angelou's grandson



One foot down, then hop! It's hot.
Good things for the ones that's got.
Another jump, now to the left.
Everybody for hisself.

In the air, now both feet down.
Since you black, don't stick around.
Food is gone, rent is due,
Curse and cry and then jump two.

All the peoples out of work,
Hold for three, now twist and jerk.
Cross the line, they count you out.
That's what hopping's all about.

Both feet flat, the game is done.
They think I lost, I think I won.



In 1969, the storyteller, poet, dancer, singer, autobiographer and civil rights activist with more than 50 honorary doctorate degrees Maya Angelou (1928-2014) published her poem "Harlem Hopscotch" (via). Hopscotch is driven by rhythm; the "twists and jerks" are a metaphor about the difficulties faced by black US-Americans (via). Before she passed away in May 2014, she worked on a project that blended her poetry with hip-hop music. Maya Angelou recited her poems, producers Shawn Rivera and RoccStarr focused on beats and instrumentals, Tabitha and Napoleon Dumo on choreography. The music video shows dancers in N.Y. and L.A. (via).

::: Maya Angelou's Harlem Hopscotch: watch





"When you read the poems on the page, they can be interpreted rhythmically by the reader." "But when Dr. Angelou reads them, there's no doubt that she was coming from the place of rhythm. ... You can tell the rhythms were implied already. She already was the first lady of hip-hop."
Shawn Rivera



photograph of girl playing hopscotch in Harlem, 105th street by Walter Rosenblum (1919-2006) taken in 1952 via, photograph of children playing chalk games in Brooklyn, taken by Arthur Leipzig (1918-2014) in 1950 via, of children in Ladbroke Grove via, of children playing hopscotch taken by Ralph Morse via, of girls playing via, photograph by Raymond Depardon via, of patrolman J. S. Davidson playing hopscotch, watched by patrolman T. D. McKnight, taken by Jim Shearin via, of Doris Day via