Sitting at the Feet of Maya Angelou

Gandhi is gone

Guatama is gone

Jesus and Mohammed to long ground
into true believers' meat
I wouldn't know them on the street

And Socrates and Plato would speak Greek

But, right here and right now
so close we almost touch

I bask and revel 
in purest presence 
and direct transmission
from this poetic patron saint

Will my life and poems change?

This is a woman
who for years did not speak
because her worlds could kill a man
and now speaks words that can save him

Will my life and poems change?

Poem arising from a Maya Angelou reading in Calgary, Alberta, with the author and his daughter Roberta in the front rows.

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