Shaker, Why Don't You Sing?

By Maya Angelou

Lyrical and cadent, dramatic and sometimes playful, these poems speak of love, longing, parting; of freedom and shattered dreams; of Saturday-night partying and the smells and sounds of Southern cities.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Apr 10, 2013
• ISBN: 9780307833242

Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou was one of the world's most important writers and activists. Born 4 April 1928, she lived and chronicled an extraordinary life: rising from poverty, violence and racism, she became a renowned author, memoirist, poet, playwright, civil rights' activist - working with Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. She wrote and performed a poem, 'On the Pulse of Morning', for President Clinton on his inauguration. She was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama and was honoured by more than seventy universities throughout the world. She first thrilled the world with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969). This was followed by six volumes of autobiography, the seventh and final volume, Mom & Me & Mom, published in 2013. She wrote three collections of essays; many volumes of poetry, including His Day is Done, a tribute to Nelson Mandela; and two cookbooks. She had a lifetime appointment as Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University of North Carolina. She died in 2014.

Book preview

Copyright © 1983 by Caged Bird Legacy, LLC

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Angelou, Maya.

Shaker, why don’t you sing?

I. Title

PS3551.N464S52 1983 811′.54 82-42807

randomhousebooks.com

Ebook ISBN: 9780307833242

rh_3.1_148355204_c0_r3

CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Awaking in New York

A Good Woman Feeling Bad

The Health-Food Diner

A Georgia Song

Unmeasured Tempo

Amoebaean for Daddy

Recovery

Impeccable Conception

Caged Bird

Avec Merci, Mother

Arrival

A Plagued Journey

Starvation

Contemporary Announcement

Prelude to a Parting

Martial Choreograph

To a Suitor

Insomniac

Weekend Glory

The Lie

Prescience

Family Affairs

Changes

Brief Innocence

The Last Decision

Slave Coffle

Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing?

My Life