RIP Maya Angelou

[PennLady]

Surprised I haven't seen this yet, but I'm sure most of you know that Maya Angelou has died. She was 86.

I hadn't heard of her until she read the poem at Clinton's first inauguration. I thought it was a great poem.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/28/us/maya-angelou-obit/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

 

[sr71plt]

Dominating the news today. She was a giant among poets (and did about everything else in the arts as well).

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

She'll be deservedly forgotten in a week. Her books served the same function as a Bible, rarely read but always prominently displayed to fool academic gestapo.

 

[sr71plt]

We'll be sure to check back in a little over a week on that.

And, gee, when I included one negative comment along with RIP sentiments on the actor Peter O'Toole, LC was all over me in indignation on posting anything negative on an RIP thread. Waiting for it (but not holding my breath, considering how two-faced LC can be. ) Of course she was black and a liberal, so . . .

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

We'll be sure to check back in a little over a week on that.

And, gee, when I included one negative comment along with RIP sentiments on the actor Peter O'Toole, LC was all over me in indignation on posting anything negative on an RIP thread. Waiting for it (but not holding my breath, considering how two-faced LC can be. ) Of course she was black and a liberal, so . . .

America loves to drag irrelevant poet laureates to auspicious events where they blabber, no one pays any attention, and the laureates return home and die. When was the last time Frost or Sandburg floated thru your mind? 1961?

 

[sr71plt]

America loves to drag irrelevant poet laureates to auspicious events where they blabber, no one pays any attention, and the laureates return home and die. When was the last time Frost or Sandburg floated thru your mind? 1961?

Umm, let's see. Frost as recently as last week when I signed a poem on for an anthology I volume edit and noted that it had Frost qualities to it. Sandburg? Last summer we made a large bypass on a trip south to visit his home, Connemara, in Flat Rock, NC. And I'm not much with poetry. On Angelou, will check back with you in a week.

See, James, it isn't really all about you for some folks.

 

[NaokoSmith]

She was a beautiful writer.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Umm, let's see. Frost as recently as last week when I signed a poem on for an anthology I volume edit and noted that it had Frost qualities to it. Sandburg? Last summer we made a large bypass on a trip south to visit his home, Connemara, in Flat Rock, NC. And I'm not much with poetry. On Angelou, will check back with you in a week.

See, James, it isn't really all about you for some folks.

But it ought to be, its the right thing to do.

 

[sr71plt]

Yeah, I'll leave you to your "give me attention" schtick on yet another thread, James.

 

[sheablue]

She wrote beautifully and lived a sometimes tragic, difficult and beautiful life. I know many people who felt changed by her. She will not soon be forgotten.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

She write beautifully and lived a sometimes tragic, difficult and beautiful life. I know many people who felt changed by her. She will not soon be forgotten.

Gone forever in a week.

 

[sheablue]

Gone forever in a week.

Wanna bet? What will you give me if you're wrong? And how do we measure "forgotten in a week?"

 

[pfflyerhot]

Really?

Awww. I did not know. She believed in life before death, and she had a knack for making me cry... Her poetry, mostly.

 

[Erochic]

Gone forever in a week.

Maybe. How long are any of us remembered when we die? But I think she'll be remembered longer than many others.

This is the first I'm hearing about her death due to where I am, and I was saddened and shocked reading that. I stumbled across her autobiography a number of years ago and was captivated by the way she wrote - funny, unflinching, moving.

I don't think she is someone who cared about her "legacy" anyway.

You didn't like her writing, fine. But there were many others who did and are saddened that she has died.

 

[sr71plt]

Fry cook, prostitute, poet (Pulitzer Prize nominee, three Grammy awards), seven autobiographies, civil rights activist (national coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference), dancer (partnered with Alvin Ailey), journalist (Egypt and Ghana), song writer (for Roberta Flack), film producer, television producer, playwright, first black woman screenwriter, first black woman film director, author, actress (television, movies, plays, operas; Tony award nominee), mentor for Oprah Winfrey, professor (Wake Forest), 2000 National Medal of Arts, 2011 Presidential Medal for Freedom, spoke six languages, 30 honorary degrees.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Michael Jackson was more popular than Angelou, and I made the same prediction. Michael Who? I've never seen her name posted to LIT, that's how relevant she was.

 

[sr71plt]

Why Michael appeared on an award show just the other day. And everyone seemed to recognize him.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/19/showbiz/michael-jackson-hologram-billboard-awards/

Of course you're just playing this thread for the attention.

 

[lovecraft68]

I have to say I am not a reader of poetry, but my wife has some of her work and read several of them to me. Incredibly touching and I'm not one to say that lightly. Normally my reaction is "yeah, that was nice" but her work was moving.

 

[lovecraft68]

Of course you're just playing this thread for the attention.

And you continue to post responses and give it to him.

 

[sr71plt]

And now we have you, senior partner of the JBJ tag team.

 

[patientlee]

I do not enjoy poetry, but I did enjoy hearing her read it.

 

[Hypoxia]

I do not enjoy poetry, but I did enjoy hearing her read it.

"A poet who reads their work in public may have other nasty habits."
--Lazarus Long

I love aural poetry. Poetry that should be declaimed or whispered or chanted. Eyeball poetry (ie ee cummings) just hasn't the impact, except as a jokey counterpoint. Too often, poets are read, and only songwriters are heard. Poetry jams are the spice of literature.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

And now we have you, senior partner of the JBJ tag team.

The Rod McKuen of LIT ^^^^^^

 

[NekoParks]

Surprised I haven't seen this yet, but I'm sure most of you know that Maya Angelou has died. She was 86.

I hadn't heard of her until she read the poem at Clinton's first inauguration. I thought it was a great poem.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/28/us/maya-angelou-obit/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

R.I.P. Sweet, wise Maya...and thank you for the words.

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

"One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest."

"You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them."

 

[sr71plt]

Gone forever in a week.

As an example of JBJ's legendary piss poor record of any sort of prognostication, we have the announcement of Maya Angelou still being remembered with the release of a U.S. postage "forever" stamp in her honor.

http://www.people.com/article/maya-angelou-stamp-forever

This is why I love it when JBJ makes his ultrareactionary political predictions. As soon as he makes them, I'm relieved to know that the opposite will happen.