Poetry Quotes by Maya Angelou

Poetry helps my soul escape its encasement.

— Maya Angelou

“I rise I rise I rise”

— Maya Angelou

Poetry gave me back my voice.

— Maya Angelou

Poetry puts starch in your backbone so you can stand, so you can compose your life.

— Maya Angelou

Poetry is music written for the human voice.

— Maya Angelou

The poetry you read has been written for you, each of you - black, white, Hispanic, man, woman, gay, straight.

— Maya Angelou

Listen to some good poetry. You see? It keeps us from thinking we are only what our blatant appetites describe us as.

— Maya Angelou

“Poetry is music for the human voice. Until you actually speak it or someone speaks it, it has not come into its…

— Maya Angelou

“It may be enough, however, to have it said that we survive in exact relationship to the dedication of our poets (include…

— Maya Angelou

I wrote some of the worst poetry west from the Mississippi River, but I wrote. And I finally sometimes got it right.

— Maya Angelou

Human beings love poetry. They don't even know it sometimes... whether they're the songs of Bono, or the songs of Justin Bieber...…

— Maya Angelou

“Will I be less dead because I wrote this poem or you more because you read it long years hence.”

— Maya Angelou

If I'm the people's poet, then I ought to be in people's hands - and, I hope, in their heart.

— Maya Angelou

I had read a Tale of Two Cities and found it up to my standards as a romantic novel. She opened the…

— Maya Angelou

“Cotton rows crisscross the world And dead-tired nights of yearning Thunderbolts on leather strops And all my body burning Sugar cane reach…

— Maya Angelou

I've had people explain to me what one of my poems meant, and I've been surprised that it means that to them.…

— Maya Angelou

I think all poems are commissioned. They just come to me without somebody outside commissioning them. The idea comes and I will…

— Maya Angelou

I find in my poetry and prose the rhythms and imagery of the best - I mean, when I'm at my best…

— Maya Angelou

There are those who say that poets should use her and his art to change the world. I'd agree with that, but…

— Maya Angelou

Like a pianist runs her fingers over the keys, I'll search my mind for what to say. Now, the poem may want…

— Maya Angelou

I'm happy to be a writer - of prose, poetry, every kind of writing. Every person in the world who isn't a…

— Maya Angelou

Oh, Black known and unknown poets, how often have your auctioned pains sustained us? Who will compute the lonely nights made less…

— Maya Angelou

“When Great Trees Fall When great trees fall, rocks on distant hills shudder, lions hunker down in tall grasses, and even elephants…

— Maya Angelou

“Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem Thunder rumbles in the mountain passes And lightning rattles the eaves of our houses. Flood waters await…

— Maya Angelou

“You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may tread me in the very dirt But still,…

— Maya Angelou

“ Caged Bird A free bird leaps on the back of the wind and floats downstream till the current ends and dips…

— Maya Angelou

I write some country music. There's a song called 'I Hope You Dance.' Incredible. I was going to write that poem; somebody…

— Maya Angelou

“Sugar cane reach up to God And every baby crying Shame the blanket of my night And all my days are dying”

— Maya Angelou

I've always written. There's a journal which I kept from about 9 years old. The man who gave it to me lived…

— Maya Angelou

“ A Conceit Give me your hand Make room for me to lead and follow you beyond this rage of poetry. Let…

— Maya Angelou

I know some people might think it odd - unworthy even - for me to have written a cookbook, but I make…

— Maya Angelou

Kudos to the educators, athletes, dancers, judges, janitors, politicians, artists, actors, writers, singers, poets, and social activist, to all who dare to…

— Maya Angelou

In all my work, in the movies I write, the lyrics, the poetry, the prose, the essays, I am saying that we…

— Maya Angelou

When younger writers and poets, musicians and painters are weakened by a stemming of funds, they come to me saddened, not as…

— Maya Angelou

I liked to write from the time I was about 12 or 13. I loved to read. And since I only spoke…

— Maya Angelou

The subject of the poem usually dictates the rhythm or the rhyme and its form. Sometimes, when you finish the poem and…

— Maya Angelou

I like to go back and read poems that I wrote fifty years ago, twenty years ago, and sometimes they surprise me…

— Maya Angelou

Depending on who I am talking about or who's talking through me - if the person is a kind of hip-hop, or…

— Maya Angelou

Poetry and music are the best at the highest level of the human mind. Out of poetry, out of their need for…

— Maya Angelou