National Poetry Month

The Phenomenal Maya Angelou

Being mute made her more creative

From biography.com

“I’m a woman, phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, that’s me.” -Maya Angelou

Who doesn’t know Maya Angelou’s poem, Phenomenal Woman? Many of us do.

This poem was one of the first times I was really exposed to her writing. Despite having a phenomenal (pun intended) career, she was not required to read in high school.

She should have been!

Over the years, I’ve read and loved her work. It’s telling, true, compelling, and completely inspiring.

In this poem in particular, she taught women how to be phenomenal women just by being one with oneself.

Maya’s exposure to trauma left her mute and unable to speak for five years. Maya became a keen observer of the world around her.

Sometimes, out of tragedy comes triumph.

Maya was triumphant in her life and career.

She was a phenomenal woman in her own right.

Is the poem autobiographical? It sure feels like it.

She has said that the poem was about all women and herself.

The poem celebrates how women should be themselves and walk as the phenomenal women they are in their lives: proud, respectful, unique, and owning it!

Women are phenomenal women to the people in their lives. Women must own that fact as well.

She didn’t leave out the men, she was just talking about the women!

Phenomenal is such a strong word.

Phenomenal in the dictionary means being exceptional, outstanding, and excellent without knowing or flaunting it.

Subtlety is the key, phenomenally.

It’s a quiet conversation of womanhood. It doesn’t club you over the head, or knock you down, or blatantly tell you.

Women are reflective images of their own experiences.

Her joys.

Her sorrows.

Her strength.

And her courage.

And yet it’s sometimes phenomenal that she’s still standing, like a lotus flower in the midst of the surrounding mud.

Women are forever standing phenomenally: with grace, gratitude, and forgiveness.

We live in the rhythm and the rhyme, and Maya Angelou had a knack for expressing that all the time.

Only a woman can be uniquely her own woman.

And Maya stepped out of her shy darkness and created a phenomenal light in her life.

Who can stop that?

That drive is what makes us phenomenal.

All women can do that.

Naturally.

Happy Heavenly 94th birthday Maya.

Thank you for reading.