We wear the mask that grins and lies. It shades our cheeks and hides our eyes. This debt we pay to human guile With torn and bleeding hearts… We smile and mouth the myriad subtleties. Why should the world think otherwise In counting all our tears and sighs. Nay let them only see us while We wear the mask. We smile but oh my God Our tears to thee from tortured souls arise And we sing Oh Baby doll, now we sing… The clay is vile beneath our feet And long the mile But let the world think otherwise. We wear the mask. When I think about myself I almost laugh myself to death. My life has been one great big joke! A dance that’s walked a song that’s spoke. I laugh so hard HA! HA! I almos’ choke When I think about myself. Seventy years in these folks’ world The child I works for calls me girl I say “HA! HA! HA! Yes ma’am!” For workin’s sake I’m too proud to bend and Too poor to break So…I laugh! Until my stomach ache When I think about myself. My folks can make me split my side I laugh so hard, HA! HA! I nearly died The tales they tell sound just like lying They grow the fruit but eat the rind. Hmm huh! I laugh uhuh huh huh… Until I start to cry when I think about myself And my folks and the children. My fathers sit on benches, Their flesh count every plank, The slats leave dents of darkness Deep in their withered flank. And they gnarled like broken candles, All waxed and burned profound. They say, but sugar, it was our submission that made your world go round. There in those pleated faces I see the auction block The chains and slavery’s coffles The whip and lash and stock. My fathers speak in voices That shred my fact and sound They say, but sugar, it was our submission that made your world go round. They laugh to conceal their crying, They shuffle through their dreams They stepped ’n fetched a country And wrote the blues in screams. I understand their meaning, It could an did derive From living on the edge of death They kept my race alive By wearing the mask! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
The sound of this woman's voice simply gives me chills and goosebumps.her voice is amazing and what she has to say is soo real and inspires me.this woman is so wise and loving.she makes me smile whenever I see her :) simply amazing! Rest in peace Maya Angelou. I love everything you did! You will live on forsure! Gone but NEVER forgotten.
This is one of my all time favorite poems by Dr.Maya Angelo. I remember watching it when it first aired, and tears streamed down my face. What a poet, and true inspiration she was for women and men everywhere. IT was through this poem, I learned I had to take off a mask, and never put it on again. Love
I'm so choked up after watching this........nothing is a mistake.....nothing is happenstance.....Like Maya Angelou said, We are ALL Human. I'm so glad I am in the world while Maya Angelou existed in this world. Her residue still heals, still strengthens.....Now that's ever lasting POWER! -Monea' aka BorntomotivateFILM
I heard Ms. Angelou recite this YEARS ago...I've ALWAYS remembered this, more than anything else I've heard from/by her. It stuck with me, and is actually something I've done in life to keep from breaking down when things become too much for me to bear.
Why is she gone? Where is she for me and all of us, besides memories and replayed poems? Now that I need her, so did God... But grateful am I that she lives on to teach me enough...
A Great Soul has passed in these times when we need her most. May Dr. Angelo's poems live on to teach the children, awaken the masses and connect to make us whole.
Yes, this is why I love to listen to Maya Angelou. Her wisdom and life experiences teaches if people just listen. I love the people I come from and that's love. No human can be no human than another human being.
“ The Truth is, No Human Being can be MORE Human than another Human Being.” Maya Angelou~ So simple, yet so profound. 🤯 Bring Peace where ever you go. ❤️🙏🏼
THANK YOU MAMA Maya for BLISSING and gracing me TODAY!!! You showed me to continue HEALING and growing even through the trials. LOVE YOU BEAUTIFUL SOUL xxxx
I never did wear a mask..then I saw my sister's did..they were raised in the deep south..but I left very young..I escaped so many old ideas..thank you creator. We forge my path🌳🍃❤
I like how Ma immediately said “It’s love, not sentimentality.” As I was almost going to respond with tears, then I stopped myself thinking, it was an experience. I cannot feel shame or sadness for her experience. I can appreciate it, and as Ma states, it was her expression of love.
This gave me chills....She is timeless...her gift is timeless..only jealousy and foolish pride keeps one from truly understanding what she is relating...
Though this has been our plight I guarantee that not everyone can be us. And I'm sure that others thinks that about themselves and their own people. But we wear the struggle of a people who will always fight against the odds and we will stand to the very end of our individual lives. I am proud of my life and my people's legacy. I LOVE YOU ALL!!! Thank you Maya Angelou for this beautiful and thought provoking poem on many levels of "the struggle". Rest In Peace. ❤️
I Thank You May a Angelos, for the many years of expressed feelings,and poetic thoughts you shared with me and throughout your life time. You will need error be forgotten. ... R.I.P. LOVE DEBRA.2015
Thx from "pale" guy from other side of the ocean, you nailed it and brought me to tears in the middle of some laughter , a blues'er since he was 15 , having had so many blue's , dark blue in (the eyes of my dying mother), light blue (in the eyes of my kids ) like the sky on a clear day's morning ......
I really wish i had the opportunity to meet this phenomenal woman in person, my heart is so sore that such glorious, impactful and insightful influence has vanished from the face of the earth i will play her videos and read her poems for my children and pass on the liberation that she had brought forward in her gift of words.
