by Maya Angelou
Some of us loved the martial songs, red blood flowing and the screams of the dying on battlefields.
And some naturally bellicose creatures decided to lay down our swords and shields and to try to study war no more.
Some of us heard the singing of angels, harmonies in a heavenly choir, or at least the music of the spheres.
We had come so far from where we started, and weren’t nearly approaching where we had to be, but we were on the road to becoming better.
I thought if I wrote a book, I would have to examine the quality in the human spirit that continues to rise despite the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
Rise out of physical pain and the psychological cruelties.
Rise from being victims of rape and abuse and abandonment to the determination to be no victim of any kind.
Rise and be prepared to move on and ever on.
I remembered a children’s poem from my mute days in Arkansas that seemed to say however low you perceive me now, I am headed for higher ground.
I wrote the first line in the book, which would become I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
“What you looking at me for. I didn’t come to stay.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Poet, writer, performer, teacher and director MAYA ANGELOU was raised in Stamps, Arkansas, and then went to San Francisco. In addition to her bestselling autobiographies, beginning with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, she has also written five poetry collections, including I Shall Not Be Moved and Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing?, as well as the celebrated poem “On the Pulse of Morning,” which she read at the inauguration of President William Jefferson Clinton.
ALSO BY MAYA ANGELOU
Autobiography
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Gather Together in My Name
Singin’ and Swingin’ and Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas
The Heart of a Woman
All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes
Essays
Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now
Even the Stars Look Lonesome
Poetry
Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ’fore I Diiie
Oh Pray My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well
And Still I Rise
Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing?
I Shall Not Be Moved
On the Pulse of Morning
Phenomenal Woman
The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou
A Brave and Startling Truth
Children’s Books
My Painted House
Kofi and His Magic
Picture Books
Now Sheba Sings the Song
Life Doesn’t Frighten Me at All
A SONG FLUNG UP TO HEAVEN
A Bantam Book
PUBLISHING HISTORY
Random House hardcover edition published April 2002
Bantam trade paperback edition / April 2003
Published by Bantam Dell
A Division of Random House, Inc.
New York, New York
All rights reserved
Copyright © 2002 by Maya Angelou
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2001034914
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eISBN: 978-0-553-89731-9
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