Letter to My Daughter - Maya Angelou [25]
Thinking of my grandmother years later, I wrote a gospel song that has been sung rousingly by The Mississippi Mass choir.
“You said to lean on your arm
And I am leaning
You said to trust in your love
And I am trusting
You said to call on your name
And I am calling
I’m stepping out on your word.”
Whenever I began to question whether God exists, I looked up to the sky and surely there, right there, between the sun and moon, stands my grandmother, singing a long meter hymn, a song somewhere between a moan and a lullaby and I know faith is the evidence of things unseen.
And all I have to do is continue trying to be a Christian.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Poet, writer, performer, teacher, and director, MAYA ANGELOU was raised in Stamps, Arkansas, then moved to San Francisco. In addition to her bestselling autobiographies, beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, she has also written a cookbook, Hallelujah! The Welcome Table, and five poetry collections, including I Shall Not Be Moved and Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing?
ALSO BY MAYA ANGELOU
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Gather Together in My Name
Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas
The Heart of a Woman
All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes
A Song Flung Up to Heaven
ESSAYS
Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now
Even the Stars Look Lonesome
POETRY
Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ’fore I Diiie
Oh Pray My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well
And Still I Rise
Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing?
I Shall Not Be Moved
On the Pulse of Morning
Phenomenal Woman
The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou
A Brave and Startling Truth
Amazing Peace
Mother
Celebrations
CHILDREN’S BOOKS
My Painted House, My Friendly Chicken, and Me
Kofi and His Magic
PICTURE BOOKS
Now Sheba Sings the Song
Life Doesn’t Frighten Me
COOKBOOK
Hallelujah! The Welcome Table
Copyright © 2008 by Maya Angelou
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
RANDOM HOUSE and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint previously published material:
Mari Evans: Excerpt from “I Am a Black Woman” from I Am a Black Woman by Mari Evans (New York: William Morrow, 1970). Reprinted by permission of Mari Evans.
Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. and Harold Ober Associates:
“I, Too” and “Dream Variations” from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes by Langston Hughes, edited by Arnold Rampersad with David Russell, associate editor, copyright © 1994 by the Estate of Langston Hughes. Rights in the United Kingdom are controlled by Harold Ober Associates. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., and Harold Ober Associates.
Melvin B. Tolson, Jr. c/o The Permissions Company: Excerpt from “Dark Symphony” from Rendezvous with America (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1944). Originally published in Atlantic Monthly (September 1941), copyright © 1941, 1944 by Melvin B. Tolson and copyright renewed 1968, 1972 by Ruth S. Tolson. Reprinted by permission of Melvin B. Tolson, Jr. c/o The Permissions Company, www.permissionscompany.com.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Angelou, Maya.
Letter to my daughter / Maya Angelou.
p. cm.
1. Angelou, Maya. 2. Authors, American—Homes and haunts—New York (State)—New York. 3. African American authors—Biography. 4. Authors, American—20th century—Biography. I. Title.
PS3551.N464Z468 2008
818'.5409—dc22 2008028843
[B]
www.atrandom.com
eISBN: 978-1-58836-751-8
v3.0