We have some discussion of her in the Thursday's thread, but for those of you who don't frequent that, what is your favorite Maya Angelou quote, poem, or memory? She was a grand lady, and as I posted in the other thread, She also has had my utmost respect as the only person a former boss of mine, a brash New Yorker by birth, who would lay in wait to corner someone like Bill Gates in an elevator, was ever intimidated by. He admitted to being almost afraid of her!

I loved her Inaugural Poem - click for the whole thing, of course, that ends:

Give birth again
To the dream.

Women, children, men,
Take it into the palms of your hands.

Mold it into the shape of your most
Private need. Sculpt it into
The image of your most public self.
Lift up your hearts
Each new hour holds new chances
For new beginnings.

Do not be wedded forever
To fear, yoked eternally
To brutishness.

The horizon leans forward,
Offering you space to place new steps of change.
Here, on the pulse of this fine day
You may have the courage
To look up and out upon me, the
Rock, the River, the Tree, your country.

No less to Midas than the mendicant.

No less to you now than the mastodon then.

Here on the pulse of this new day
You may have the grace to look up and out
And into your sister's eyes, into
Your brother's face, your country
And say simply
Very simply
With hope
Good morning.