Someone who was called a poet. You wouldn’t have gotten that impression if you read anything by her.
You mean like Nipsey Russell?
Lousy poet; there, I said it. RIP anyway.
As with many poets who ‘make it’, her writing went downhill. I do enjoy Angelou’s earlier work. But then academe fell in love with her voice (which could sound cool), her femaleness, and her African-Americanness.
That was beautifully said. Couldn't agree more.
” You wouldn’t have gotten that impression if you read anything by her.”
Hold on there! Didn’t she write,
“There once was a man from Nantucket...”
i just looked up some of her works, and read a few... the works seem like poetry to me... i am just wondering why you think that? i do not like the topics or the points of view of every poet--i am big Robert Frost and Walt Whitman fan myself--but i could not say that someone's works are not poetry... i have a cousin who is a published poet out of New Mexico... some of his works i can relate to... some i just do not...
i remember seeing Maya Angelou many years ago on Oprah's show... i was at my momma's house and she watched Oprah on occasion... i remember walking out--i just did not care to listen to them talk... i am not a Maya Angelou fan... she stood on the opposite side on what is important to me... but i guess i can say that she was a poet with her point of view... now why it was that she was and will continue to be so celebrated, i do not know... that i do not get...
one thing i will say, she lived a colorful life... as did Louis L'Amour--who is a favorite writer of mine...
Poetry is Back: (By Ed Sanders) - I wrote this over 10 years ago, seems appropriate now.
Osgood brings a smile
reciting poetry from his files,
He brings news that you can use
in a way that will amuse.
Poetry is back.
Jessee Jackson promotes,
preaches and orates,
using woven words
to help his message be heard.
Poetry is back.
The cowboy poets from all over
gather in Elko annually
to recite a verse,
tip their hats and houdy.
Poetry is back.
The rappers rap,
the hip hoppers hip.
Poetry is back.
These strange bedfellows
use verse and rhyme,
to preach their politics
and enjoy a good time.
They save for society
and for all time,
poems with proper meter,
and rhymes that really rhyme.
All the while they work
and write and speak,
the properly “educated” poets
write poems that truly reek!
Without any attention
to meter or proper time,
they write and recite
poems that don’t even rhyme.
They gaze over their upraised noses
to us rabble far below.
writing verse that makes no sense
except to their friends in the know.
Many of these self appointed poets
who can’t even make a poem rhyme,
suckle from NEA grants, writing
poems that only whine.
If their work had to pass the
free market test they wouldn’t eat.
But they live high in fine clothes,
as they suckle the government teat.
In spite of the professional poets
talent or their lack,
Cowboys, preachers, radio folk and musicians keep on... And poetry is back.
Lots of political sloganeering very little poetry.
“Not the we, us or them. Poetry is only the I and the me. The only thing as selfish as poetry is taking a s***.” — Captain Compassion
I’m pretty sure they forced us to read her in grade school.
If she weren’t a left wing activist, she’d have been a nobody.
May she RIP though.