POETRY SPOT

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Maya Angelou (1928 – 2014) was an American memoirist, popular poet, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. She remains best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim.

She became a poet and writer after a string of odd jobs during her young adulthood. These included fry cook, sex worker, nightclub performer, Porgy and Bess cast member, Southern Christian Leadership Conference coordinator, and correspondent in Egypt and Ghana during the decolonisation of Africa. She was also an actress, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television programs.

She was active in the Civil Rights Movement and worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Beginning in the 1990s, she made approximately 80 appearances a year on the lecture circuit, something she continued into her eighties.

She continues to be renowned for her writing and contributions to the civil rights movement, as well as for the realness and raw honesty of her writings and disclosures.

Below is one of her lighter poems.

My Younger Days

by Maya Angelou

When I was in my younger days,

I weighed a few pounds less,

I needn't hold my tummy in

to wear a belted dress.

But now that I am older,

I've set my body free;

There's the comfort of elastic

Where once my waist would be.

Inventor of those high-heeled shoes

My feet have not forgiven;

I have to wear a nine now,

But used to wear a seven.

And how about those pantyhose-

They're sized by weight, you see,

So how come when I put them on

The crotch is at my knee?

I need to wear these glasses

As the print's been getting smaller;

And it wasn't very long ago

I know that I was taller.

Though my hair has turned to gray

and my skin no longer fits,

On the inside, I'm the same old me,

It's the outside's changed a bit.

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