A Plagued Journey Poetry By Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou was an American author and a poet who has been called "America's most visible black female autobiographer" by scholar Joanne M. Braxton. She is best known for her series of six autobiographical volumes, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences.

A Plagued Journey Poetry - 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

a fling with Hope. I am

joined again into its

greedy arms.

Maya Angelou

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