Kathy Joy reads four Maya Angelou poems including Alone, Human Family and When Great Trees Fall, reflects on Angelou’s legacy and caregiving, and briefly previews upcoming Cadre contributors and sessions.
Kathy Joy: April 4 marks the anniversary of the birthday of Maya Angelou. She says one of her best days is when she can bend words into poetry. Joy reads four poems in tribute to Angelou, starting with Alone. Next poem is from Maya is Human Family.
On caregiver day in the Cadre is the poem. And a couple of quotes here. I love how poetry just says what it says. They land on your ears and in your heart the way they're meant to.
Final poem is titled When Great Trees Fall by Maya Angelou. When we lose somebody, it's like a great tree just thudding onto the forest floor. She was a social activist, Renaissance woman in many ways, spoke wisdom before her time. Happy birthday April 4th.
Today on the Cadre at 1:00 we have a new contributor, Jamie Larry. Jamie is going to talk about intentional self care. At 3:00, which is Eastern standard, we have Ms. Shannon Paul comedy through the Chaos. I'll see you next week.
Hello, Cadre. I'm your girl. Speak, wonder. My name is Kathy Joy. On Thursdays, I come alongside your journey in caregiving. On caregiver day. Today, I'd like to honor the memory of Maya Angelou, one of my favorite poets. I have written and read some of my poems here on the Cadre. As I like to say, one of my best days is when I can bend words into poetry. Hi, Robert. And today, April 4, marks the anniversary of the birthday of Maya Angelou. Poet, activist, marvelous, complex writer. She came to my commencement from college and was our commencement speaker.
I bought a copy of the book I Know why the Caged Bird Sings, which was the memoir of her early years, her childhood years. Beautiful book. If you're not familiar with Maya Angelou, I invite you to Google her and see what you find that might speak to your heart in poetry. So she died in May of 2014, and yet she lives through her legacy of words. We all leave our mark, and Maya certainly has lived hers. C. lippold often will say on his Morning Live, I hope you're having a great day, but if you're not okay, it's okay to not be okay.
We need each other. As a matter of fact, this poem, and I'm going to read 1, 2, 3, 4 of her poems. This first one is titled Alone, and it kind of speaks to the Cadre in the way we support each other through this medium. Alone by Maya Angelou. Lying, thinking last night how to find my soul a home where water is not thirsty and bread loaf is not stone I came up with one thing and I don't believe I'm wrong that nobody, but nobody can make it here alone Alone, all alone Nobody, but nobody can make it out here alone There are some millionaires with money they can't use Their wives run around like Manshees Their children sing the blues They've got expensive doctors to cure their hearts of stone but nobody, no, nobody can make it here alone now if you listen closely I'll tell you what I know Storm clouds are gathering the wind is going to blow the race of man is suffering and I can hear the moan because nobody, but nobody can make it out here alone Alone, all alone Nobody, but nobody can make it here alone Alone the next poem I'm going to read you from Maya is Human Family.
Do you like my hat? Makes me feel literary. Human Family. I note the obvious differences in the human family. Some of us are serious. Some thrive on comedy Some declare their lives are lived as true Profundity and others claim they really live the real reality the the variety of our skin tones can confuse bemuse deep delight Brown and pink and beige and purple Tan and blue and white I've sailed upon the seven seas and stopped in every land I've seen the wonders of the world not yet one common man I know 10,000 women called Jane and Mary Jane But I've not seen any two who really were the same Mirror twins are different Although their features jibe and lovers think quite different thoughts While lying side by side we love and lose in China we weep on England's moors and laugh and moan in guinea and thrive on Spanish shores We seek success in Finland we're born and die in Maine in minor ways we differ in major we're the same I know the obvious differences between each sort and type but we are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike we are more alike, my friends Than we are unalike we are more alike, my friends Than we are unalike the next poem I'd like to read in tribute to Maya Angelou.
On caregiver day in the Cadre is the poem. Touched by an angel, we, unaccustomed to courage, exiles from delight live coiled in shells of loneliness until love leaves its high holy temple and comes into our sight to liberate us into life. Love arrives and in its train come ecstasies Old memories of pleasure Ancient histories of pain. Yet if we are bold love strikes away the chains of fear from our souls we are weaned from our timidity in the flush of love's light we dare be brave and suddenly we see that love costs all we are and all we ever will be.
Yet it is only love which sets us free. And a couple of quotes here. And then the final poem. One of the quotes, rather. Hey, Andy. Joyful, thanks for joining. One of the quotes is about music. Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness. Yeah, music takes us to another realm. And then, oh, there's so many good ones. Here it is. We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has had to go through to achieve that beauty.
I love how poetry just says what it says. And I resisted the urge to interpret any of these poems because that's why they're poetry. They land on your ears and in your heart the way they're meant to. It's a whole different way of relating in language. So the final poem I want to read is titled When Great Trees Fall by Maya Angelou the only thing I'll say in preference in preface to this poem is when we lose somebody, it's like a. A great tree just thudding onto the forest floor. And it has consequences that reverberate all around Maryland.
I love music, love to sing right there with you. And I do sing, even on rough days like today. And you don't have to know why I'm sad. All I want you to know is that I'm thankful for the Cadre community and thankful that I can be who I am and experience my emotions on all the levels with you. Because we're real. 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, now far 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. And that concludes the reading of a few of my favorite and perhaps more obscure Maya Angelou poems. She wrote poetry and read it at presidential inaugurations, at college commencements like mine, and at protests. She was, like I say, a social activist, Renaissance woman in many ways, spoke wisdom before her time.
An old Soul. Happy birthday April 4th. To Maya Angelou. Today on the Cadre at 1:00 we have a new contributor, Jamie Larry. Jamie is going to talk about intentional self care. That's at one, at least. I'm not going to translate the Times. I was going to try and translate to the other time zones. Just look in the Cadre and find Jamie. And then at 3:00, my time, which is Eastern standard, we have Ms. Shannon Paul comedy through the Chaos. Thank you, friends. I'll see you next week. Be well, be kind, read some poetry.
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