Tuesday Teaching Memo:Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou
Click on this link to hear Angelou recite the poem herself:http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/org.wgbh.mla:MLA001039
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies
I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them
They think I’m telling lies.
I say,
It’s in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It’s the fire in my eyes
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing of my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can’t touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them,
They say they still can’t see.
I say
It’s in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
Now you understand
Just why my head’s not bowed.
I don’t shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It’s in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
The palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
‘Cause I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
from And Still I Rise by Maya Angelou
I taught Maya Angelou’s I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, her autobiography, for a College course titled Literature and Liberation back in NY. It was the first time I had read and taught her book, and because my students were comprised of mostly underprivileged freshmen girls, I thought Maya Angelou would be a great example/model for them. After all, she grew up abandoned by her parents, growing up poor and black in the south. Like most of the writers I love and fill my teachings with, she came from nothing, never fit in, ran away, became a stripper, had a baby when she was but a girl herself, and then found her way to literacy and beyond. She is a remarkable woman who knows about struggling and fighting head on, and who uses her experiences to teach others how they can find empowerment. The beginning pages of her book reveal that she was nothing to look at as a child, and how she always wanted to look like the cute white girls she knew, with their light skin and tame hair. And yet, somehow, in her struggles for survival and self-identity, she becomes a remarkable woman, a beautiful woman, an educated and literate woman, and as her poem states, a phenomenal woman. What this poem talks about is that she’s not cute or small, and yet men find her attractive because there is something about her, something phenomenal in everything that makes her who she is. Her beauty is in her walk, the proud tilt of her head, the way she carries herself and the way she treats herself. Her power is not in her sex, but in every nuance of her being. It is a poem we should all memorize and recite to ourselves each night before we go to bed and each morning when we look in the mirror searching for the flaws we feel we need to cover. We are all real, wonderful, and phenomenal women just as we are.
Copyright© 2010 by Marina DelVecchio. All Rights Reserved.
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Thanks for the RT. Following you and downloaded your collection of shorts. I think it’s great that you reward your visitors with a free glimpse into your writing. Wishing you great success.
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I always enjoy your posts. A friend gave me the collected poems of Maya Angelou for my birthday and that was the first time I’d read all of them.
Thelma Z
http://www.widowsphere.blogspot.com
Thank you, Thelma. Angelou is a wonderful example of where we can go when we believe in ourselves…after years of not.
Marina,
Love and have loved this poem for decades! It really sums up the potential of how we can feel about ourselves. Thanks for posting and sharing it with many who may not have read it before…or heard it!
CJ
I love that poem by Maya Angelou…I remember it from a movie that featured it back in the late 80′s, early 90′s….wow, that was long ago. Thanks for reminding me…