The Complete Collected Poems

 

  MAYA ANGELOU: POEMS

 

  Just Give Me

  a Cool Drink

  of Water

  'fore I Diiie

 

  Oh Pray My Wings

  Are Gonna

  Fit Me Well

 

  And Still

  I Rise

 

  Shaker, Why Don't

  You Sing

 

 

  BANTAM BOOKS

  NEW YORK -TORONTO � LONDON � SYDNEY � AUCKLAND

 

  MAYA ANGELOU: POEMS

  JUST GIVE ME A COOL DRINK OF WATER 'FORE I DIIIE,

  OH PRAY MY WINGS ARE GONNA FIT ME WELL,

  AND STILL I RISE, SHAKER, WHY DON'T YOU SING ?

  A Bantam Book

  PUBLISHING HISTORY

  Bantam 3 Volume edition / November 1981

  Bantam 4 Volume edition I February 1986

  Bantam reissue November 1993

  JUST GIVE ME A COOL DRINK OF WATER FORE I DIUE was originally published by Random House, Inc., in 1971. Bantam

  edition published January 1973 All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Copyright � 1971

  by Maya Angelou; The following poems were first published in The Poetry of Maya Angelou and are reprinted by permission of Hirt

  Music Inc. Copyright � 1969 by Hirt Music Inc.: "They Went Home," "The Gamut," "To a Man " "No Loser, No Weeper," "When You

  Come to Me," "Remembering," "In a Time " "Tears," "The Detached," "To a Husband," "Accident," "Let's Majeste " or the "Ego and I," "On

  Diverse Deviations," "Mourning Grace," "Sounds Like Pearls," "When I Think About Myself," "Letter to an Aspiring Junkie," "Miss Scarlett,

  Mr. Rhett & Other Latter-Day Saints," "Faces," "To a Freedom Fighter " "Riot: 60's," "No No No No," "Black Ode," "My Guilt," "The

  Calling of Names " "On Working White Liberals," "Sepia Fashion Show," "The Thirteens (Black)," "The Thirteens (White)," "Harlem

  Hopscotch"; OH PRAY MY WINGS ARE GONNA FIT ME WELL was originally published by Random House, Inc. August 1975.

  Bantam edition published October 1977. Copyright � 1975 by Maya Angelou. Several poems have appeared in Cosmopolitan August

  1975 and November 1976; AND STILL I RISE was originally published by Random House, Inc. August 1978. Bantam edition

  published January 1980. Portions of this book appeared in Cosmopolitan during 1978 as "Phenomenal Woman" and "Just for a Time."

  Copyright � 1978 by Maya Angelou; SHAKER, WHY DON'T YOU SING' was originally published by Random House, Inc. February

  1983. Portions of this book appeared in the Ladies' Home Journal Juty 1983 and in New Woman September 1985 through December

  1985

  All rights reserved.

  Copyright � 1986 by Bantam Books.

  Photo copyright � 1993 by Peter Cunningham

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  from the publisher.

  For information address: Random House, Inc., 201 East 50th Street. New York. NY 10022

 

  If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen

  property. It was reported as "unsold and destroyed" to the publisher and neither the author

  nor the publisher has received any payment for this "stripped book "

  ISBN 0-553-25576-2

  Published simultaneously in the United States and Canada

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  PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

 

  Contents

  JUST GIVE ME A COOL DRINK OF WATER 'FORE I DIIIE

  Part One: Where Love Is a Scream of Anguish

  They Went Home 4

  The Gamut 5

  A Zorro Man 6

  To a Man 7

  Late October 8

  No Loser, No Weeper 9

  When You Come to Me 10

  Remembering 11

  In a Time 12

  Tears 13

  The Detached 14

  To a Husband 15

  Accident 16

  Let's Majeste 17

  After 18

  The Mothering Blackness 19

  On Diverse Deviations 20

  Mourning Grace 21

  How I Can Lie to You 22

  Sounds Like Pearls 23

 

  Part Two: Just Before the World Ends

  When I Think About Myself 26

  On a Bright Day, Next Week 27

  Letter to an Aspiring Junkie 28

  Miss Scarlett, Mr. Rhett and Other Latter-Day Saints 30

  Times-Square-Shoeshine-Composition 32

  Faces 34

  To a Freedom Fighter 35

  Riot: 60's 36

  We Saw Beyond Our Seeming 38

  Black Ode 39

  No No No No 40

  My Guilt 44

  The Calling of Names 45

  On Working White Liberals 46

  Sepia Fashion Show 47

  The Thirteens (Black) 48

  The Thirteens (White) 49

  Harlem Hopscotch 50

  OH PRAY MY WINGS ARE GONNA FIT ME WELL

  Part One

  Pickin Em Up and Layin Em Down 54

  Here's to Adhering 56

  On Reaching Forty 58

  The Telephone 59

 

  Part Two

  Passing Time 62

  Now Long Ago 63

  Greyday 64

  Poor Girl 65

  Come. And Be My Baby 67

  Senses of Insecurity 68

  Alone 69

  Communication I 71

  Communication II 72

  Wonder 73

  A Conceit 74

 

  Part Three

  Request 76

  Africa 77

  America 78

  For Us, Who Dare Not Dare 80

  Lord, In My Heart 81

  Artful Pose 84

 

  Part Four

  The Couple 86

  The Pusher 87

  Chicken-Licken 90

 

  Part Five

  I Almost Remember 92

  Prisoner 94

  Woman Me 96

  John J. 97

  Southeast Arkanasia 99

  Song for the Old Ones 100

  Child Dead in Old Seas 102

  Take Time Out 104

  Elegy 107

  Reverses 109

  Little Girl Speakings 110

  This Winter Day 111

 

  AND STILL I RISE

 

  Part One: Touch Me, Life, Not Softly

  A Kind of Love, Some Say 116

  Country Lover 117

  Remembrance 118

  Where We Belong, A Duet 119

  Phenomenal Woman 121

  Men 124

  Refusal 126

  Just for a Time 127

 

  Part Two: Traveling

  Junkie Monkey Reel 130

  The Lesson 131

  California Prodigal 132

 
My Arkansas 134

  Through the Inner City to the Suburbs 135

  Lady Luncheon Club 137

  Momma Welfare Roll 139

  The Singer Will Not Sing 140

  Willie 141

  To Beat the Child Was Bad Enough 143

  Woman Work 144

  One More Round 146

  The Traveler 148

  Kin 149

  The Memory 151

 

  Part Three: And Still I Rise

  Still I Rise 154

  Ain't That Bad? 156

  Life Doesn't Frighten Me 158

  Bump d'Bump 160

  On Aging 161

  In Retrospect 162

  Just Like Job 163

  Call Letters: Mrs. V. B. 165

  Thank You, Lord 166

 

  SHAKER, WHY DON'T YOU SING?

  Awaking in New York 171

  A Good Woman Feeling Bad 172

  The Health-Food Diner 173

  A Georgia Song 175

  Unmeasured Tempo 178

  Amoebaean for Daddy 179

  Recovery 181

  Impeccable Conception 182

  Caged Bird 183

  Avec Merci, Mother 185

  Arrival 186

  A Plagued Journey 187

  Starvation 189

  Contemporary Announcement 190

  Prelude to a Parting 191

  Martial Choreograph 192

  To a Suitor 194

  Insomniac 195

  Weekend Glory 196

  The Lie 199

  Prescience 200

  Family Affairs 202

  Changes 204

  Brief Innocence 205

  The Last Decision 206

  Slave Coffle 207

  Shaker, Why Don't You Sing? 208

  My Life Has Turned to Blue 209

 

  JUST GIVE ME

  A COOL DRINK

  OF WATER

  'FORE I DIIIE

 

  to

  Amber Sam

  and the

  Zorro Man

 

  PART ONE

  Where Love Is a Scream of Anguish

 

  They Went Home

 

  They went home and told their wives, that never once in all their lives, had they known a girl like

  me,

  But . . . They went home.

  They said my house was licking clean, no word I spoke was ever mean, I had an air of mystery,

  But . . . They went home.

  My praises were on all men's lips, they liked my smile, my wit, my hips, they'd spend one night,

  or two or three.

  But ...

 

  The Gamut

  Soft you day, be velvet soft,

  My true love approaches,

  Look you bright, you dusty sun,

  Array your golden coaches.

 

  Soft you wind, be soft as silk

  My true love is speaking.

  Hold you birds, your silver throats,

  His golden voice I'm seeking.

 

  Come you death, in haste, do come

  My shroud of black be weaving,

  Quiet my heart, be deathly quiet,

  My true love is leaving.

 

  5

 

  A Zorro Man

 

  Here

  in the wombed room

  silk purple drapes

  flash a light as subtle

  as your hands before

  love-making

 

  Here

  in the covered lens

  I catch a

  clitoral image of

  your general inhabitation

  long and like a

  late dawn in winter

 

  Here

  this clean mirror

  traps me unwilling

  in a gone time

  when I was love

  and you were booted and brave

  and trembling for me.

 

  6

 

  To a Man

 

  My man is

  Black Golden Amber

  Changing.

  Warm mouths of Brandy Fine

  Cautious sunlight on a patterned rug

  Coughing laughter, rocked on a whorl of French tobacco

  Graceful turns on woolen stilts

  Secretive?

  A cat's eye.

  Southern. Plump and tender with navy bean sullenness

  And did I say "Tender"?

  The gentleness

  A big cat stalks through stubborn bush

  And did I mention "Amber"?

  The heatless fire consuming itself.

  Again. Anew. Into ever neverlessness.

  My man is Amber

  Changing

  Always into itself

  New. Now New.

  Still itself.

  Still.

 

  7

 

  Late October

 

  Carefully

  the leaves of autumn

  sprinkle down the tinny

  sound of little dyings

  and skies sated

  of ruddy sunsets

  of roseate dawns

  roil ceaselessly in

  cobweb greys and turn

  to black

  for comfort.

 

  Only lovers

  see the fall

  a signal end to endings

  a gruffish gesture alerting

  those who will not be alarmed

  that we begin to stop

  in order simply

  to begin

  again.

 

  8

 

  No Loser, No Weeper

 

  "I hate to lose something,"

  then she bent her head

  "even a dime, I wish I was dead.

  I can't explain it. No more to be said.

  Cept I hate to lose something."

 

  "I lost a doll once and cried for a week.

  She could open her eyes, and do all but speak.

  I believe she was took, by some doll-snatching-sneak

  I tell you, I hate to lose something."

 

  "A watch of mine once, got up and walked away.

  It had twelve numbers on it and for the time of day.

  I'll never forget it and all I can say

  Is I really hate to lose something."

 

  "Now if I felt that way bout a watch and a toy,

  What you think I feel bout my lover-boy?

  I ain't threatening you madam, but he is my evening's joy.

  And I mean I really hate to lose something."

 

  9

 

  When You Come to Me

 

  When you come to me, unbidden,

  Beckoning me

  To long-ago rooms,

  Where memories lie.

 

  Offering me, as to a child, an attic,

  Gatherings of days too few.

  Baubles of stolen kisses.

  Trinkets of borrowed loves.

  Trunks of secret words,

 

  I CRY.

 

  10

 

  Remembering

 

  Soft grey ghosts crawl up my sleeve

  to peer into my eyes

  while I within deny their threats

  and answer them with lies.

 

  Mushlike memories perform

  a ritual on my lips

  I lie in stolid hopelessness

  and they lay my s
oul in strips.

 

  11

 

  In a Time

 

  In a time of secret wooing

  Today prepares tomorrow's ruin

  Left knows not what right is doing

  My heart is torn asunder.

 

  In a time of furtive sighs

  Sweet hellos and sad goodbyes

  Half-truths told and entire lies

  My conscience echoes thunder

 

  In a time when kingdoms come

  Joy is brief as summer's fun

  Happiness, its race has run

  Then pain stalks in to plunder.

 

  12

 

  Tears

 

  Tears

  The crystal rags

  Viscous tatters

  of a worn-through soul

 

  Moans

  Deep swan song

  Blue farewell

  of a dying dream.

 

  13

 

  The Detached

 

  We die,

  Welcoming Bluebeards to our darkening closets,

  Stranglers to our outstretched necks.

  Stranglers, who neither care nor

  care to know that

  DEATH IS INTERNAL.

 

  We pray,

  Savoring sweet the teethed lies,

  Bellying the grounds before alien gods

  Gods, who neither know nor

  wish to know that

  HELL IS INTERNAL.

 

  We love,

  Rubbing the nakednesses with gloved hands

  Inverting our mouths in tongued kisses,

  Kisses that neither touch nor

  care to touch if

  LOVE IS INTERNAL.

 

  14

 

  To a Husband

 

  Your voice at times a fist

  Tight in your throat

  Jabs ceaselessly at phantoms

  In the room,

  Your hand a carved and

  skimming boat

  Goes down the Nile

  To point out Pharaoh's tomb.

 

  You're Africa to me

  At brightest dawn.

  The Congo's green and

  Copper's brackish hue,

  A continent to build

  With Black Man's brawn.

  I sit at home and see it all

  Through you.

 

  15

 

  Accident

 

  tonight

  when you spread your pallet

  of magic,

  I escaped,

  sitting apart,

  I saw you grim and unkempt.

  Your vulgar-ness

  not of living

  your demands

  not from need.

 

  tonight

  as you sprinkled your brain-dust

  of rainbows,

  I had no eyes.

  Seeing all

  I saw the colors fade

  and change.

  The blood, red dulled

  through the dyes,

  and the naked

  Black-White truth.

 

  16

 

  Let's Majeste

 

  I sit a throne upon the times

  when Kings are rare and

  Consorts

  slide into the grease of scullery maids.

 

  So gaily wave a crown of light

  (astride the royal chair) that blinds

  the commoners who genuflect and cross their fingers.

 

  The years will lie beside me

  on the queenly bed.

  And coupled we'll await

  the ages' dust to cake my lids again.

 

  And when the rousing kiss is given,

  why must it always be a fairy, and

  only just a Prince?

 

  17

 

  After

 

  No sound falls

  from the moaning sky

  No scowl wrinkles

  the evening pool

  The stars lean down

  A stony brilliance

  While birds fly

  The market leers

  its empty shelves

  Streets bare bosoms

  to scanty cars

  This bed yawns

  beneath the weight

  of our absent selves.

 

  18

 

  The Mothering Blackness

 

  She came home running

  back to the mothering blackness

  deep in the smothering blackness

  white tears icicle gold plains of her face

  She came home running

 

  She came down creeping

  here to the black arms waiting

  now to the warm heart waiting

  rime of alien dreams befrost her rich brown face

  She came down creeping

 

  She came home blameless

  black yet as Hagar's daughter

  tall as was Sheba's daughter

  threats of northern winds die on the desert's face

  She came home blameless

 

  19

 

  On Diverse Deviations

 

  When love is a shimmering curtain

  Before a door of chance

  That leads to a world in question

  Wherein the macabrous dance

  Of bones that rattle in silence

  Of blinded eyes and rolls

  Of thick lips thin, denying

  A thousand powdered moles,

  Where touch to touch is feel

  And life a weary whore

  I would be carried off, not gently

  To a shore,

  Where love is the scream of anguish

  And no curtain drapes the door.

 

  20

 

  Mourning Grace

 

  If today, I follow death

  go down its trackless wastes,

  salt my tongue on hardened tears

  for my precious dear times waste

  race

  along that promised cave in a headlong

  deadlong

  haste,

  Will you

  have

  the

  grace

  to mourn for

  me?

 

  21

 

  How I Can Lie to You

 

  now thread my voice

  with lies

  of lightness

  force within

  my mirror eyes

  the cold disguise

  of sad and wise

  decisions.

 

  22

 

  Sounds Like Pearls

 

  Sounds

  Like pearls

  Roll off your tongue

  To grace this eager ebon ear.

 

  Doubt and fear.

  Ungainly things,

  With blushings

  Disappear.

 

  23

 

  Part Two

 

  Just Before the

  Worl
d Ends

 

  When I Think About Myself

 

  When I think about myself,

  I almost laugh myself to death,

  My life has been one great big joke,

  A dance that's walked

  A song that's spoke,

  I laugh so hard I almost choke

  When I think about myself.

 

  Sixty years in these folks' world

  The child I works for calls me girl

  I say "Yes ma'am" for working's sake.

  Too proud to bend

  Too poor to break,

  I laugh until my stomach ache,

  When I think about myself.

 

  My folks can make me split my side,

  I laughed so hard I nearly died,

  The tales they tell, sound just like lying,