How Are You Living A PHENOMENAL Life!?
Book Discussion - PHENOMENAL WOMAN by Maya Angelou
My Goal this summer is to read more black authors and books that are black lead; History and biographies of those who have come before me and shook the table with their presence of blackness. For my first book of the summer. I choose something short and very impactful.
The book Phenomenal Woman, is composed of 4 poems by the great Maya Angelou; Phenomenal woman, Still I Rise, Weekend Glory and Our Grandmothers. These 22 pages have impacted me so much this week. I am deeply grateful that this is my first read from Maya Angelou.
I try to critically engage with my texts, so i’ve read this book a few times. Reading over each poem at least 3-5 times to really sit with me. I have to know what these poems are trying to tell me and what it is asking of me as a person in this world and specifically a Black woman in this world. These poems by Maya Angelou ask me; Do I deem myself phenomenal? How do You enter rooms? How do I hold myself when things circumstances and people are against me and my being? Am I being resilient? Am I being Bold? Am I rising from fear? In our day to day are you taking time out for yourself? Are you grateful for the life you live? Are you honoring the people that have come before you to give you the life you’re living now?
So many questions posed from just 22 pages. It all starts with our first poem.
The poem Phenomenal woman, starts with maya being questioned by pretty women; asking where her secret lies. Then explains up and down how she is phenomenal to her core. She talks about self; how you are phenomenal, how your physical being is so intoxicating people don’t know why they are flocking to you. They think you’re holding a secret when your spirit is just so bright.
At first, I thought she was just talking about our womanly assets that make us phenomenal. The first page reads;
“It’s in the reach of my arms,
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
the curl of my lips.
I’m a woman”
It is so much deeper than the physical attributes of our body. It is something in our soul, our essence that we can’t teach or describe to people who do not understand, but flock to us like honey bees to flowers.
“Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can’t touch
My inner mystery
When I try to show them
They say they still can’t see
I say,
It’s the arch of my back
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me
Now you understand
just why my head’s not bowed.
I don’t shout or jump about
or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing,
It ought to make you proud.”
It’s also a type of pride in the person you are. The body you inhabit and soul you’ve come down with; Godly in essence. I asked myself; Do I deem myself phenomenal? How do You enter rooms? Is there confidence leaking from my soul? No was my first thought; And I think that should change Because what do you mean as a black woman you don’t feel like god’s gift to this earth?
In my personal life, I feel stuck. In an environment that doesn’t serve me and that brings me immense fear. In turn, I feel as though it is stifling my confidence & how I see myself. All Mental and trauma induced. But starts with those morning affirmations. Which I’ve been slacking on. But I am Phenomenal is going up there first.
Our second poem, still I rise; is an ode to the resilience black people have had for centuries. Through all the pain we make our experiences shine like glitter diamonds. and Those who cast us into these positions become angered because we are not suffering like they want us too; And that says more about those people than it does us.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
’Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own backyard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
My head is raised and I still won’t let whatever it is get to me in my soul. you can pierce me with vile looks but my life is not determined by hate or sorrow. 400 years and we’re still surviving and enjoying our lives.
one of my favorite lines is;
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
YES! I am what the slaves dreamed for. This kind of “freedom”. Though it is still a fight coz in the USA it is not truly freedom, its blocked by White supremacy and patriarchy. But still an advancement from the days of picking cotton or even the civil rights movement.
Even just bringing it back as Black Women as a whole and not the whole black populous. In our everyday people look at us like we do not deserve the life we live. we are underneath the barrel of pickings and we still go home and laugh and create life we want despite evil trying to seep its way into our hearts.
This poem asks me; How do I hold myself when things, circumstances and people are against me and my being? Am I being resilient? Am I being Bold? Am I rising from fear? Am I exercising the freedoms given to me by those who have come before?
Short Answer: No. So how do I honor my ancestors. How do I rise from the things I feel are holding me back? How am I Being Bold? What does resilience look like to me? Definitely a journal worthy topic and requires several pages of actual introspection and thought.
The third poem, Weekend Glory ; Tells the tale of just a regular working woman. Maya starts out saying those people with all their glitz and glamour have on masks and they don’t know how to live right. the way to live is on a saturday night. bills are paid, hair is done, out with the girls to meet their men, they spend their night at the joint listening to jazz and blues.
My absolute favorite line is;
My life ain’t heaven
but it sure ain’t hell.
I’m not on top
but I call it swell
if I’m able to work
and get paid right
and have the luck to be Black
on a Saturday night.
She is just grateful for what she has; Her Blackness, getting money, bills paid off and a night of fun with her peoples every week.
At the end of this, I ask myself; In our day to day are you taking time out for yourself? Are you grateful for the life you live? The immediate No takes me aback. I am grateful for the things in my life but I feel as though I do not show my gratitude often. How can you show it when you are complaining all the time? Are you really taking to the time to enjoy yourself and the life you’ve been given? I truly feel like I haven’t been; and I want to embody that!
Our last Poem, Our Grandmothers; is the longest and most impactful. maya takes us through slavery where a woman is trying to take her babies to freedom while reciting the lines, “I shall not be moved”.
She lay, skin down on the moist dirt,
the canebrake rustling
with the whispers of leaves, and
loud longing of hounds and
the ransack of hunters crackling the near
branches.She muttered, lifting her head a nod toward
freedom,I shall not, I shall not be moved.
She gathered her babies,
their tears slick as oil on black faces,
their young eyes canvassing mornings of madness.
Momma, is Master going to sell you
from us tomorrow?
Yes.
These are the first lines of this poem, written like a story. This woman is trying to get her and her babies out during this time of slavery. They are scared but very aware of what is going on and what is going to happen. Their mother is going to get sold but they keep moving.
She heard the names,
swirling ribbons in the wind of history:
nigger, nigger bitch, heifer,
mammy, property, creature, ape, baboon,
whore, hot tail, thing, it.
She said, But my description cannot
fit your tongue, for
I have a certain way of being in this world,
and I shall not, I shall not be moved.
With everything vile being done, nothing will move her to anger. Not even the iniquity cast upon us (I learned the word Iniquity from this book. it is extreme wickedness, immoral or grossly unfair behavior. Don’t you love learning new words). This reminds me of the childhood saying; Sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me! I shall not be moved by words used to try and control and sedate me.
Into the crashing sound,
into wickedness, she cried,
No one, no, nor no one million
ones dare deny me God. I go forth
alone, and stand as ten thousand.
The Divine upon my right
impels me to pull forever
at the latch on Freedom’s gate.
The Holy Spirit upon my left leads my
feet without ceasing into the camp of the
righteous and into the tents of the free.
This definitely speaks to the faith black people have. But the Line “I go forth alone, and stand as ten thousand”! Means so much. Not only is God (The universe whatever you want to call it) is by her side, but to me I saw this as, the ancestors of many pasts are there with her. She may be physically alone but she has spirits behind her. Those who she remembers and those of a long past before. Those who have not been moved.
Maya begins to list names of modern influential women. Harriet tubman, zora hurston etc. then exclaims that these women are at your grocery stores, on line for welfare, going up to the abortion clinic. Women that will not be moved.
The book Phenomenal Woman really asks us at its core; What is Phenomenal about your life and how do you show and appreciate that? Especially within Blackness, since we are taught to hate ourselves and the people we come from. Feel burdened by our situations that are suppose to break us down mentally and spiritually. We do not appreciate our day to day enough. We do not Honor those who came before us that has given this life to us. Are You standing for something or are you docile and met your demise? We need to change our out look and really think about what means to be Phenomenal, in both a casual and extraordinary way.
Though, these stories center women, this can be applied to all; She, He’s, They's, Gays and everyone in between. But you should take it upon yourself to tell the black women, especially elders, in your life that you love them and that they are phenomenal just for existing. Appreciation goes a long way!
I loved this book and since it was so short, it was a good read to kick off the summer! I hope my other reads are just as good and as impactful!