And Still I Rise: A Book of Poems

Maya Angelous unforgettable collection of poetry lends its name to the documentary film about her life, And Still I Rise, as seen on PBSs American Masters.

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
Im not cute or built to suit a fashion models size
But when I start to tell them,
They think Im telling lies.
I say,
Its in the reach of my arms,
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
Im a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
Thats me.

Thus begins Phenomenal Woman, just one of the beloved poems collected here in Maya Angelous third book of verse. These poems are powerful, distinctive, and freshand, as always, full of the lifting rhythms of love and remembering. And Still I Rise is written from the heart, a celebration of life as only Maya Angelou has discovered it.

It is true poetry she is writing, M.F.K. Fisher has observed, not just rhythm, the beat, rhymes. I find it very moving and at times beautiful. It has an innate purity about it, unquenchable dignity. . . . It is astounding, flabbergasting, to recognize it, in all the words I read every day and night . . . it gives me heart, to hear so clearly the caged bird singing and to understand her notes.