Maya Angelou…A Phenomenal Woman!

Dr. Maya Angelou passed away Wednesday at the age of 86.  My heart is heavy in having to write about someone I have longtime memories with.  So, instead of the usual OK WASSUP! “Remembering The Life Of (Insert Celebrity Name Here),” or our traditional THANK GOD IT’S FRIDAY series, I’d just like to post one of my favorite poems from one of my very favorite people.

“When Great Trees Fall


When great trees fall,
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
lumber after safety.


When great trees fall
in forests,
small things recoil into silence,
their senses
eroded beyond fear.


When great souls die,
the air around us becomes
light, rare, sterile.
We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,
see with
a hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened,
examines,
gnaws on kind words
unsaid,
promised walks
never taken.


Great souls die and
our reality, bound to
them, takes leave of us.
Our souls,
dependent upon their
nurture,
now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed
and informed by their
radiance,
fall away.
We are not so much maddened
as reduced to the unutterable ignorance
of dark, cold
caves.


And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.”


― Maya Angelou

Take your rest, Mother Angelou and be at peace!

– DJ