Poetry Quote by Maya Angelou — Inspiring Words on Life, Love & Wisdom

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

“It’s the fire in my eyes,”

“Soft you day, be velvet soft,”

“Nothing will work unless you do.”

“Ah, Momma. I had never looked at death before, peered into its yawning chasm for the face of a beloved. For days my mind staggered out of balance. I reeled on a precipice of knowledge that even if I were rich enough to travel all over the world, I would never find Momma. If I were as good as God’s angels and as pure as the Mother of Christ, I could never have Momma’s rough slow hands pat my cheek or braid my hair.”

“This is a wonderful day, I have never seen this one before.”

“So build yourself as beautiful as you want your world to be. Wrap yourself in light then give yourself away with your heart, your brush, your march, your art, your poetry, your play. And for every day you paint the war, take a week and paint the beauty, the color, the shape of the landscape you’re marching towards. Everyone knows what you’re against; show them what you’re for.”

“I suppose I'm saying that defiance is actually part of the lyric job”

“Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.”

“Sweet as the tender fragrance that survives,”

“Does something which exists on the edge have no true relevance to the stable center, or does it, by being on the edge, become a part of the edge and thus a part of the boundary, the definition which gives the whole its shape?”

“There's an old saying that applies to me: you can't lose a game if you don't play the game. (Act 1, scene 4)”