From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "A Brave and Startling Truth" is a poem by Maya Angelou. Critic Richard Long called it her "second 'public' poem". Angelou delivered it in June 1995, at the 50th anniversary commemoration of the United Nations, two years after she read "On the Pulse of Morning" at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton, which made her the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961. Later that year, her publisher Random House published an edition of the poem. In 2014, the poem Brave and Startling Truth by Angelou was among several works of art, including a recording of We Shall Overcome arranged by Nolan Williams, Jr. and featuring mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves sent to space on the first test flight of the spacecraft Orion.
A Brave and Startling Truth © Maya Angelou We, this people, on a small and lonely planet Traveling through casual space Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns To a destination where all signs tell us It is possible and imperative that we learn A brave and startling truth And when we come to it To the day of peacemaking When we release our fingers From fists of hostility And allow the pure air to cool our palms When we come to it When the curtain falls on the minstrel show of hate And faces sooted with scorn are scrubbed clean When battlefields and coliseum No longer rake our unique and particular sons and daughters Up with the bruised and bloody grass To lie in identical plots in foreign soil When the rapacious storming of the churches The screaming racket in the temples have ceased When the pennants are waving gaily When the banners of the world tremble Stoutly in the good, clean breeze When we come to it When we let the rifles fall from our shoulders And children dress their dolls in flags of truce When land mines of death have been removed And the aged can walk into evenings of peace When religious ritual is not perfumed By the incense of burning flesh And childhood dreams are not kicked awake By nightmares of abuse When we come to it Then we will confess that not the Pyramids With their stones set in mysterious perfection Nor the Gardens of Babylon Hanging as eternal beauty In our collective memory Not the Grand Canyon Kindled into delicious color By Western sunsets Nor the Danube, flowing its blue soul into Europe Not the sacred peak of Mount Fuji Stretching to the Rising Sun Neither Father Amazon nor Mother Mississippi who, without favor, Nurture all creatures in the depths and on the shores These are not the only wonders of the world When we come to it We, this people, on this minuscule and kithless globe Who reach daily for the bomb, the blade and the dagger Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of peace We, this people on this mote of matter In whose mouths abide cankerous words Which challenge our very existence Yet out of those same mouths Come songs of such exquisite sweetness That the heart falters in its labor And the body is quieted into awe We, this people, on this small and drifting planet Whose hands can strike with such abandon That in a twinkling, life is sapped from the living Yet those same hands can touch with such healing, irresistible tenderness That the haughty neck is happy to bow And the proud back is glad to bend Out of such chaos, of such contradiction We learn that we are neither devils nor divines When we come to it We, this people, on this wayward, floating body Created on this earth, of this earth Have the power to fashion for this earth A climate where every man and every woman Can live freely without sanctimonious piety Without crippling fear When we come to it We must confess that we are the possible We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world That is when, and only when We come to it. * © A Brave and Startling Truth was published in a commemorative booklet in 1995 and was later included in Maya Angelou: The Complete Poetry (public library).
I hope Maya’s poem I chose to share today touches us all in all the right places.
Also, thanks so much for your support of my debut poetry collection. I bless you.
“We are the possible
We are the miraculous–
the true wonder
of this world”
*
Let’s turn to our stillness within
to allow the blessings to seep in.
p.s. Click above image to go to the Amazon page
to read a sample of
In The Shadow of Rainbows.
Thanks for your visit today.
I bless you and wish you safe and joyous festivities.
I’m a simple woman who dares to see the beauty in ordinary. I’d love to connect with you and like pen pals, I want something beautiful to blossom between us. Will you join me? Selma is my middle name. Its meaning—peaceful, complete, are euphoric affirmations I like to think of myself as having. They compliment the joy I feel when I write. I sincerely hope you decide to join me on my writing journey. I Wish You Miracles.
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Thank you for sharing this beautiful poem Selma. It is possible to live in harmony and peace but we all need to desire it, work for it.
True true true, Sadje.
Thanks for appreciating the poem so much and showing it with a comment. I bless you.
My pleasure
we so need this now, thanks for sharing
What can I say? It says it all.
A wonderful reading of a powerful poem, Selma!
Thanks for sharing this idea I follow yours but can you follow mine. Anita
She was a gift! Thank you for sharing your voice and her timeless words. 👏🏻
🙇🏽♀️ stay sweet.
😇🙏🏻
Beautiful recital, Selma. And loved the poems chosen. Huge congratulations for your debut collection 😃♥️✨♥️♥️
Aww. Arigatou gozaimasu 🙇🏽♀️
And congratulations to you too. 🤗
What a poem! I loved your audio too.
Your enthusiasm is all the encouragement I need. Blessings.
I love listening to your audio as I read along, Selma. I might play the audio again as I get to bed in a bit ☺️
Hope it was soothing. Thank you for being here. Blessings.
It was ☺️