It’s one thing to start every day with a poem. But another altogether to start your day with a poet. One of our favorite days of the year is fast approaching, when we encourage people around the world to take their favorite poet to work for the day.
Take Your Poet to Work Day is coming July 15
To help you play and celebrate with us, we’re releasing poets each week in a compact, convenient format you can tuck in your pocket, tool belt, or lunchbox. We started our celebration two years ago with Sara Teasdale, Pablo Neruda, T. S. Eliot, Rumi, Edgar Allan Poe, and the reclusive Emily Dickinson (for folks who work at home). We even released a full collection, The Haiku Masters: Matsuo Basho, Yosa Buson, and Kobayashi Issa. And last year, we added Langston Hughes, Adrienne Rich, John Keats, William Butler Yeats, Christina Rossetti and the beloved 20th-century American poet, Sylvia Plath.
Because you can never have too many poets in your lunch box (or your desk drawer), we have a new collection of poets to release this year, beginning with the Bard of Avon, William Shakespeare. Today, we welcome beloved poet Maya Angelou to the Take Your Poet to Work Day poet collection.
Take Your Poet to Work: Maya Angelou
Get your own downloadable version of Take Your Poet to Work Day Printable Maya Angelou that you can print, color and cut out for the big day.
Maya Angelou
Dr. Maya Angelou was born in 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. As a result of a childhood rape and subsequent murder of the rapist by her uncle, Dr. Angelou stopped talking for several years. Her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, chronicles her life during these years. The book was the first non-fiction work by a black woman to reach best-seller status.
Dr. Angelou went on to work as a Tony and Emmy award-winning actress, a director, and a civil rights activist. She published several other autobiographies and several poetry collections, including the Pulitzer-nominated Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘Fore I Die.
She recited the poem, “On the Pulse of Morning” at Bill Clinton’s 1993 presidential inauguration. Dr. Angelou died in 2014 following several years of health issues.
Caged Bird
A free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wing
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.
But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn
and he names the sky his own
But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
—Maya Angelou
Learn more about Take Your Poet to Work Day and our featured poets
Discover more Poets and Poems
Explore more Maya Angelou
Post and illustrations by LW Lindquist.
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Maureen Doallas says
She’s wonderful, LW!
L. L. Barkat says
I second that. Her spirit shines through 🙂
Megan Willome says
Love that you embedded that video of her reciting her iconic poem. You can see her sassiness, her humor, all of it.
Dave Malone (@dzmalone) says
Love it! I’m taking my poet to work–which one? Wait. I’m going to take a couple, a gaggle, a school, a battery, a sleuth!