Poetry | Caged Bird by Maya Angelou

“All great artists draw from the same resource: the human heart, which tells us all that we are more alike than we are unalike.” ~ Maya Angelou, Letter to My Daughter

Caged Bird 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

 

Caged Bird by Maya Angelou, courtesy of The Poetry Foundation

Image: Elliott Erwitt – Paris, 1949

“All great #artists draw from the same resource: the human heart.” Maya Angelou

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“I write about being a Black American woman, however, I am always talking about what it’s like to be a human being. This is how we are, what makes us laugh, and this is how we fall and how we somehow, amazingly, stand up again.” ~ Maya Angelou

Listen to Maya Angelou read the opening of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, here. The unabridged audio is available from Hachette Audio UK: