Today’s poem has been chosen by our Writer in Residence and Teacher of English, Emma Shevah
It was difficult to choose today’s poem of the day. Should it be a poem of hope? Rage? Sadness? Resilience? Unity? A poem for change? To inspire? We need all of these this week. With that in mind, I’m going to break the rules a little and offer three, although just one will be in the body of this email.
I was initially drawn to and inspired by Langston Hughes poem Let America be America Again, especially the two lines that read, America never was America to me the land where every man is free. Langston Hughes, a black poet from Missouri (1902-1967) wanted to tell the stories of his people that reflected their experiences and culture. College educated at a time when it was rare for black people to walk the halls of higher education, he also wrote novels, short stories and plays – insightful colourful portrayals of black life in America from the 20th to the 60s – and won numerous medals and awards for his literature. You can find the poem here.
The second (attached) is by a contemporary poet and academic, Ashley M Jones, and is taken from her book Dark//Thing. The poem is called, Who will Survive in America? or 2017: A Horror Film. The last line of the poem is particularly poignant this week.
But today’s Poem of the Day is Caged Bird by Maya Angelou, a civil rights activist, poet and award-winning author who once said, If you don’t like something change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude, which might be a dictum we could all take to heart.
Maya Angelou was born in 1928, also in Missouri, and as an African American woman, experienced racial prejudice and discrimination in her difficult, colourful life: she spent five years in silence; she was San Francisco’s first black cable car conductor; she lived and travelled abroad, recited a poem at the inauguration of President Clinton, and her 1969 memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, made literary history as the first nonfiction bestseller by an African American woman. Angelou received several honours throughout her career for her numerous poetry and essay collections, as well as her groundbreaking memoir. She died in 2014.
Caged Bird by Maya Angelou
A free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wing
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 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.
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.
