A Sad Farwell

There is something peculiar about mourning someone you have never known--being sad that their voice is gone from a world in which you've never really heard it, only imagined it in your heart as tears roll down your cheeks while reading words that they wrote.  It happened some time ago with Anne McCaffrey for me, and today I find myself crying for the death of Maya Angelou.

I read a poem of hers a long time ago in high school, and I guess her name just stuck with me--the poet who wrote those beautiful words.  They spoke to something inside of me, and I wasn't certain anyone else really understood them.  The poem was about a bird--a caged bird, and it was called "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings".

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


Most people will say this poem is about the American Civil Rights movement.  They will say it was about slavery, inequality, and the desire for freedom from oppression and segregation.  I know those things are part of what this poem is about; I can feel the power of those emotions in her words still today.  But the poem, to me, wasn't just about black people and white people.  It wasn't just about civil rights.  To me, it signified people who are trapped--trapped in their many cages--poor people, women, the handicapped, the alone, the frightened, and the abused.  It spoke to me of rape victims and soldiers who had died in wars.

 

We fill our stories with hopes so that maybe our dreams will live on--if only in those words.

 

And so, today, I say farewell to the woman who gave a voice to the oppressed, to the woman who freed the caged birds, and to the woman who dreamed of a better world.

 

Rest in Peace, Maya Angelou...and thank you.