Quickly Quotable #17 – Maya Angelou

Touched by An Angel
by Maya Angelou

We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.

Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.

We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love’s light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.

Maya Angelou: a poet, writer, actress, director, playwright, civil rights activist, composer, polyglot. So many different terms describing one person only. A true Renaissance woman. She went through the mill from a black little girl discriminated against in the white society to an artist respected in the whole world, from childhood marked by traumatic experiences to adulthood filled with wisdom and good. Maya Angelou impresses with her inner strength and self-awareness, and draws attention of bigger and bigger masses of readers and fans. She is author of ten best-selling books and laureate of many awards from different fields. She received fifty honorary degrees from various colleges.

Poem from famouspoetsandpoems.com

Biography from MayaAngelou.net