Feisty, Phenomenal, Fifty!

In honor of my 50th birthday today, I'm sharing an extraordinary poem the inimitable Maya Angelou crafted for Oprah Winfrey on the occasion of the latter's 50th several years ago. Oprah is a fellow Aquarian (b. 1/29/54), and refers to Maya, whom she's known nearly her entire adult life, as her "Mother-Sister-Mentor-Friend."

Her timeless words apply to us all. May we each drink from this well of wisdom and replenish our beings with her juicy, expansive, revivifying blessing:


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On the day of your birth
The Creator filled countless storehouses and stockings
With rich ointments
Luscious tapestries
And antique coins of incredible value
Jewels worthy of a queen's dowry
They were set aside for your use
Alone

Armed with faith and hope
And without knowing of the wealth which awaited
You broke through dense walls
Of poverty
And loosed the chains of ignorance which
threatened to cripple you so that you
could walk
A free woman
Into a world which needed you

My wish for you
Is that you continue

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To be who and how you are
To astonish a mean world
With your acts of kindness


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To allow humor to lighten the burden
Of your tender heart


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In a society dark with cruelty
To let the people hear the grandeur
Of God in the peals of your laughter


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To let your eloquence
Elevate the people to heights
They had only imagined


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To remind the people that
Each is as good as the other
And that no one is beneath
Nor above you


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To remember your own young years
And look with favor upon the lost
And the least and the lonely


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To put the mantel of your protection
Around the bodies of
The young and defenseless


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To take the hand of the despised
And diseased and walk proudly with them
In the high street
Some might see you and
Be encouraged to do likewise


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To plant a public kiss of concern
On the cheek of the sick
And the aged and infirm
And count that as a
Natural action to be expected


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To let gratitude be the pillow
Upon which you kneel to
Say your nightly prayer
And let faith be the bridge
You build to overcome evil
And welcome good


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To ignore no vision
Which comes to enlarge your range
And increase your spirit


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To dare to love deeply
And risk everything
For the good thing


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To float
Happily in the sea of infinite substance
Which set aside riches for you
Before you had a name


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And by doing so
You and your work
Will be able to continue
Eternally
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!