Your Favorite Poems

[LadyLike]

You Learn

After a while you learn the subtle difference
Between holding a hand and chaining a soul,

And you learn that love doesn't mean leaning
And company doesn't mean security.

And you begin to learn that kisses aren't contracts
And presents aren't promises,

And you begin to accept your defeats
With your head up and your eyes open
With the grace of a woman, not the grief of a child,

And you learn to build all your roads on today
Because tomorrow’s ground is too uncertain for plans
And futures have a way of falling down in mid-flight.

After a while you learn…
That even sunshine burns if you get too much.

So you plant your garden and decorate your own soul,
Instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.

And you learn that you really can endure…

That you really are strong

And you really do have worth…

And you learn and learn…

With every good-bye you learn.

[ProfPacker]

You do own to hear me faintly
as a whisper out of range,
while my drums beat out the message
and the rhythms never change.


Equality, and I will be free.
Equality, and I will be free.


You announce my ways are wanton,
that I fly from man to man,
but if I'm just a shadow to you,
could you ever understand?


We have lived a painful history,
we know the shameful past,
but I keep on marching forward,
and you keep on coming last.


Equality, and I will be free.
Equality, and I will be free.


Take the blinders from your vision,
take the padding from your ears,
and confess you've heard me crying,
and admit you've seen my tears.


Hear the tempo so compelling,
hear the blood throb through my veins.
Yes, my drums are beating nightly,
and the rhythms never change.


Equality, and I will be free.
Equality, and I will be free.

Written by Maya Angelou