Word Builder (Monday Poem)

by Ann Whitford Paul

 

 

Begin your new construction

with twenty-six letters.

Hammer a through z into words.

Pile your words like blocks

into sentence towers--

measure some tall,

saw others short.

Mortar each sentence

with punctuation,

then frame your sentences

into paragraph villages,

stack your paragraphs

into chapter cities.

Keep on building

words into sentences

sentences into paragraphs,

paragraphs into chapters 

until you have created

a whole world of book.

 

 

from Wonderful Words: Poems About Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening

selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins

illustrated by Karen Barbour

Simon & Schuster, 2004 

 

 

In and Out of Time (Monday Poem)

by Maya Angelou

 

 

The sun has come
The mists have gone
We see in the distance our long way home
I was always yours to have
You were always mine
We have loved each other in and out of time
When the first stone looked up at the blazing sun
And the first tree struggled up from the forest floor
I have always loved you more
You freed your braids, gave your hair to the breeze
It hung like a hive of honey bees
I reached in the mass for the sweet honeycomb there
God, how I loved your hair
You saw me bludgeoned by circumstance
Lost, injured, hurt by chance
I screamed to the heavens
Loudly screamed
Trying to change our nightmares into dreams
The sun has come
The mists have gone
We see in the distance our long home
I was always yours to have
You were always mine
We loved each other in and out,
in and out, in and out of time 

 

 

 

from Maya Angelou: The Complete Poetry

Random House, 2015 

 

Prayer (Monday Poem)

 by Maya Angelou

Father, Mother God,

Thank you for your presence

during the hard and mean days.

For then we have you to lean upon.

 

Thank you for your presence

during the bright and sunny days,

for then we can share that which we have

with those who have less.

 

And thank you for your presence

during the Holy Days, for then we are able

to celebrate you and our families

and our friends.

 

For those who have no voice,

we ask you to speak.

 

For those who feel unworthy,

we ask you to pour your love out

in waterfalls of tenderness.

 

For those who live in pain,

we ask you to bathe them

in the river of your healing.

 

For those who are lonely, we ask

you to keep them company.

 

For those who are depressed,

we ask you to shower upon them

the light of hope.

 

Dear Creator, You, the borderless

sea of substance, we ask you to give all the

world that which we need most -- Peace.

 

 

 

from Maya Angelou: The Complete Poetry

Random House, 2015   

A Plagued Journey (Monday Poem)

 by Maya Angelou

There is no warning rattle at the door   

nor heavy feet to stomp the foyer boards.   

Safe in the dark prison, I know that   

light slides over

the fingered work of a toothless   

woman in Pakistan.

Happy prints of

an invisible time are illumined.   

My mouth agape

rejects the solid air and

lungs hold. The invader takes   

direction and

seeps through the plaster walls.   

It is at my chamber, entering   

the keyhole, pushing

through the padding of the door.   

I cannot scream. A bone

of fear clogs my throat.

It is upon me. It is

sunrise, with Hope

its arrogant rider.

My mind, formerly quiescent

in its snug encasement, is strained

to look upon their rapturous visages,   

to let them enter even into me.   

I am forced

outside myself to

mount the light and ride joined with Hope.

 

Through all the bright hours   

I cling to expectation, until   

darkness comes to reclaim me

as its own. Hope fades, day is gone   

into its irredeemable place

and I am thrown back into the familiar   

bonds of disconsolation.

Gloom crawls around

lapping lasciviously

between my toes, at my ankles,   

and it sucks the strands of my   

hair. It forgives my heady   

fling with Hope. I am

joined again into its

greedy arms.

 

 

 

 

from Maya Angelou: The Complete Poetry

Random House, 2015 

 

Just Like Job (Monday Poem)

by Maya Angelou

 

 

My Lord, my Lord,
Long have I cried out to Thee
In the heat of the sun,
The cool of the moon,
My screams searched the heavens for Thee.
My God,
When my blanket was nothing but dew,
Rags and bones
Were all I owned,
I chanted Your name
Just like Job.

Father, Father,
My life give I gladly to Thee
Deep rivers ahead
High mountains above
My soul wants only Your love
But fears gather round like wolves in the dark.
Have You forgotten my name?
O Lord, come to Your child.
O Lord, forget me not.

You said to lean on Your arm
And I’m leaning
You said to trust in Your love
And I’m trusting
You said to call on Your name
And I’m calling
I’m stepping out on Your word.

You said You’d be my protection,
My only and glorious saviour,
My beautiful Rose of Sharon,
And I’m stepping out on Your word.
Joy, joy
Your word.
Joy, joy
The wonderful word of the Son of God.

You said that You would take me to glory
To sit down at the welcome table
Rejoice with my mother in heaven
And I’m stepping out on Your word.

Into the alleys
Into the byways
Into the streets
And the roads
And the highways
Past rumor mongers
And midnight ramblers
Past the liars and the cheaters and the gamblers.
On Your word
On Your word.
On the wonderful word of the Son of God.
I’m stepping out on Your word.

 

 

 

from Maya Angelou: The Complete Poetry

Random House, 2015  

Now the Work of Christmas Begins (Monday Poem)

by Howard Thurman

 

 

When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the people,
to make music in the heart.

 

 

 

from The Mood of Christmas and Other Celebrations

Friends United Press, 1985 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Caged Bird (Monday Poem)

 by Maya Angelou

 

 

A free bird leaps

on the back of the wind   

and floats downstream   

till the current ends

and dips his wing

in the orange sun rays

and dares to claim the sky.

 

But a bird that stalks

down his narrow cage

can seldom see through

his bars of rage

his wings are clipped and   

his feet are tied

so he opens his throat to sing.

 

The caged bird sings   

with a fearful trill   

of things unknown   

but longed for still   

and his tune is heard   

on the distant hill   

for the caged bird   

sings of freedom.

 

The free bird thinks of another breeze

and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees

and the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn

and he names the sky his own

 

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams   

his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream   

his wings are clipped and his feet are tied   

so he opens his throat to sing.

 

The caged bird sings   

with a fearful trill   

of things unknown   

but longed for still   

and his tune is heard   

on the distant hill   

for the caged bird   

sings of freedom.

 

 

 

from The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou 

Random House, 1994