Really, Leah

Dear Creative,

My mind races with thoughts of current events, women’s rights in sports, and, yes, Black History Month. I hope you are well. My prayer is that this letter is received with the good kind of angst that fills my heart right now—the sort that sings, “We are not laboring in vain.” Prayers are being answered. We shall not be moved or dismayed. I hear the words of a beautiful soul beating inside me, yearning for my attention. May I present Maya Angelou?

My, oh, Maya. An angel in my eyes. Born Marguerite Johnson on April 4, 1928, in Saint Lois, Missouri, she was an American poet, writer, memoirist, educator, dramatist, movie director, producer, historian, actress, and civic rights activist. And I did not know, but Dr. Maya Angelou (I hear myself saying her title in a professorial voice) received over 50 honorary doctorate degrees. Imagine receiving one? How phenomenal.

Her rules on writing.

In a 1983 interview, Angelou reflected on writing, which I will share as a part of this week’s rules on writing from the greats: 

“I try to live what I consider a “poetic existence.” That means I take responsibility for the air I breathe and the space I take up. I try to be immediate, to be totally present for all my work… My responsibility as a writer is to be as good as I can be at my craft. So I study my craft… Learning the craft, understanding what language can do, gaining control of the language, enables one to make people weep, make them laugh, even make them go to war. You can do this by learning how to harness the power of the word. So studying my craft is one of my responsibilities. The other is to be as good a human being as I possibly can be so that once I have achieved control of the language, I don’t force my weaknesses on a public who might then pick them up and abuse themselves.”

Sources: Black Women Writers at Work, by Claudia Tate and https://www.themarginalian.org/2023/01/07/maya-angelou-writing/

My dear Creatives, we often suffer from instant gratification syndrome. We want instant benefits without long-suffering. We fear that time will run out before we know all we need to know, and indeed it will. We will never know everything about our craft, but we must practice learning as much as we can as often as time permits while we also produce what we have knowledge of at the moment.

Angelou taps us with our responsibilities to ourselves and our audience. The audience to whom we are responsible. That was our lesson last week.

Her Christianity.

She adds that we must also be good humans. And I know no other way to be good to humanity than by Christian service. In one of my favorite tabletop books, I Dream a World, by Brian Lanker, Angelou responds to an interview once again. She shares:

“I was a mute for five years. I wasn’t cute and I didn’t speak. I don’t know what would have happened to me had I been in an integrated school. In another society, I’m sure I would have been ruled out. But my grandma told me all the time, “Sister, Mama don’t care what these people say about you being a moron, being an idiot. Mama don’t care. Mama know, Sister, when you and the good Lord get ready, you’re gonna be a preacher.
Recently, I gave the principal speech to the National Council of Christians and Jews.
Love affords wonder. And it is only love that gives one the liberty, the courage to go inside and see who am I really.”

Photo Credit: I Dream a World

If God is love, and I know He is, then “God affords wonder.” It is through Him that we live, move, fly, and break all manner of barriers, as Maya Angelou did. 

One of my favorite poems of hers is captured in the photo below. The work is entitled “Still I Rise.” Only a saint could write such words, especially the ending.

In closing, to all who have forgotten and feel daunted by the faithless cries of fear! God says, “Fear not.” He commands us to fear not every day of the year. That’s 365 times the reader is told to trust and put their hope in Him.  

The work of living is hard, and we may never see the end of prejudice, grifting, and bigotry but fear not. We are the living dream of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, whether we are Black or white. And if we are Black Americans, we are certainly the hope of the enslaved.

We are,

we can be,

and we will be

when our faith rests with God. For the only way out of our fear is up into the spirit of God.

The psalmist states ever so eloquently in Psalms 56:11, “In God I trust. I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?” 

…

Thank you for bearing with my poetic existence for today. I hope you learned something that you can take away and use. I thank God for Maya Angelou’s gift. And I hope we all rise from whatever it is in our past or bloodline that tries to weigh us down. 

In loving memory of my ancestor, mentor, and honorary sorority sister (1983). I see who I am really,

Leah