Happy National Poetry Month

&

Happy Birthday Dr. Maya Angelou!

Quite possibly my favorite sentence ever comes from the title of Maya Angelou's biography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.  The image evoked by these simple words strung together is so hauntingly beautiful, so wonderfully moving, so incredibly uplifting even in its sorrow, that ever since I first heard it, I have been captivated by it.  Something about birds in song, gets me every time. Which probably explains why one of my alltime favorite songs is "Songbird" as sung by Eva Cassidy.  And why birds often appear in my writng...

Here is part of the poem that inspired the title of Maya Angelou's book:

Sympathy

By Paul Laurence Dunbar

I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,
When he beats his bars and would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings –
I know why the caged bird sings.