{"product_id":"celebrations-isbn-9781400066100","title":"Celebrations","description":"Grace, dignity, and eloquence have long been hallmarks of Maya Angelou’s poetry. Her measured verses have stirred our souls, energized our minds, and healed our hearts. Whether offering hope in the darkest of nights or expressing sincere joy at the extraordinariness of the everyday, Maya Angelou has served as our common voice. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eCelebrations \u003c\/i\u003eis a collection of timely and timeless poems that are an integral part of the global fabric. Several works have become nearly as iconic as Angelou herself: the inspiring “On the Pulse of Morning,” read at President William Jefferson Clinton’s 1993 inauguration; the heartening “Amazing Peace,” presented at the 2005 lighting of the National Christmas Tree at the White House; “A Brave and Startling Truth,” which marked the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations; and “Mother,” which beautifully honors the first woman in our lives. Angelou writes of celebrations public and private, a bar mitzvah wish to her nephew, a birthday greeting to Oprah Winfrey, and a memorial tribute to the late Luther Vandross and Barry White.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMore than a writer, Angelou is a chronicler of history, an advocate for peace, and a champion for the planet, as well as a patriot, a mentor, and a friend. To be shared and cherished, the wisdom and poetry of Maya Angelou proves there is always cause for celebration.\u003cb\u003eMaya Angelou\u003c\/b\u003e was raised in Stamps, Arkansas. In addition to her bestselling autobiographies, including \u003ci\u003eI Know Why the Caged Bird Sings\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Heart of a Woman,\u003c\/i\u003e she wrote numerous volumes of poetry, among them \u003ci\u003ePhenomenal Woman, And Still I Rise, On the Pulse of Morning,\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eMother\u003c\/i\u003e. Maya Angelou died in 2014.A BRAVE AND STARTLING TRUTH\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eDedicated to the hope for peace, which lies,\u003cbr\u003esometimes hidden, in every heart.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe, this people, on a small and lonely planet\u003cbr\u003eTraveling through casual space\u003cbr\u003ePast aloof stars, across the way of indifferent\u003cbr\u003esuns\u003cbr\u003eTo a destination where all signs tell us\u003cbr\u003eIt is possible and imperative that we learn\u003cbr\u003eA brave and startling truth.\u003cbr\u003eAnd when we come to it\u003cbr\u003eTo the day of peacemaking\u003cbr\u003eWhen we release our fingers\u003cbr\u003eFrom fists of hostility\u003cbr\u003eWhen we come to it\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen the curtain falls on the minstrel show\u003cbr\u003eof hate\u003cbr\u003eAnd faces sooted with scorn are scrubbed\u003cbr\u003eclean\u003cbr\u003eWhen battlefields and coliseum\u003cbr\u003eNo longer rake our unique and particular\u003cbr\u003esons and daughters\u003cbr\u003eUp with the bruised and bloody grass\u003cbr\u003eTo lay them in identical plots in foreign soil\u003cbr\u003eWhen the rapacious storming of the churches\u003cbr\u003eThe screaming racket in the temples have\u003cbr\u003eceased\u003cbr\u003eWhen the pennants are waving gaily\u003cbr\u003eWhen the banners of the world tremble\u003cbr\u003eStoutly in a good, clean breeze\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen we come to it\u003cbr\u003eWhen we let the rifles fall from our shoulders\u003cbr\u003eAnd our children can dress their dolls in flags\u003cbr\u003eof truce\u003cbr\u003eWhen land mines of death have been removed\u003cbr\u003eAnd the aged can walk into evenings of peace\u003cbr\u003eWhen religious ritual is not perfumed\u003cbr\u003eBy the incense of burning flesh\u003cbr\u003eAnd childhood dreams are not kicked awake\u003cbr\u003eBy nightmares of sexual abuse\u003cbr\u003eWhen we come to it\u003cbr\u003eThen we will confess that not the Pyramids\u003cbr\u003eWith their stones set in mysterious perfection\u003cbr\u003eNor the Gardens of Babylon\u003cbr\u003eHanging as eternal beauty\u003cbr\u003eIn our collective memory\u003cbr\u003eNot the Grand Canyon\u003cbr\u003eKindled into delicious color\u003cbr\u003eBy Western sunsets\u003cbr\u003eNor the Danube, flowing its blue soul into\u003cbr\u003eEurope\u003cbr\u003eNot the sacred peak of Mount Fuji\u003cbr\u003eStretching to the Rising Sun\u003cbr\u003eNeither Father Amazon nor Mother\u003cbr\u003eMississippi\u003cbr\u003ewho, without favor,\u003cbr\u003eNurtures all creatures in their depths and on\u003cbr\u003etheir shores\u003cbr\u003eThese are not the only wonders of\u003cbr\u003ethe world\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen we come to it\u003cbr\u003eWe, this people, on this minuscule globe\u003cbr\u003eWho reach daily for the bomb, the blade,\u003cbr\u003eand the dagger\u003cbr\u003eYet who petition in the dark for tokens of\u003cbr\u003epeace\u003cbr\u003eWe, this people, on this mote of matter\u003cbr\u003eIn whose mouths abide cankerous words\u003cbr\u003eWhich challenge our very existence\u003cbr\u003eYet out of those same mouths\u003cbr\u003eCan come songs of such exquisite sweetness\u003cbr\u003eThat the heart falters in its labor\u003cbr\u003eAnd the body is quieted into awe\u003cbr\u003eWe, this people, on this small and drifting\u003cbr\u003eplanet\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhose hands can strike with such abandon\u003cbr\u003eThat, in a twinkling, life is sapped from the\u003cbr\u003eliving\u003cbr\u003eYet those same hands can touch with such\u003cbr\u003ehealing,\u003cbr\u003eirresistible tenderness,\u003cbr\u003eThat the haughty neck is happy to bow\u003cbr\u003eAnd the proud back is glad to bend\u003cbr\u003eOut of such chaos, of such contradiction\u003cbr\u003eWe learn that we are neither devils nor\u003cbr\u003edivines\u003cbr\u003eWhen we come to it\u003cbr\u003eWe, this people, on this wayward, floating\u003cbr\u003ebody\u003cbr\u003eCreated on this earth, of this earth\u003cbr\u003eHave the power to fashion for this earth\u003cbr\u003eA climate where every man and every woman\u003cbr\u003eCan live freely without sanctimonious piety\u003cbr\u003eWithout crippling fear\u003cbr\u003eWhen we come to it\u003cbr\u003eWe must confess that we are the possible\u003cbr\u003eWe are the miraculous, we are the true\u003cbr\u003ewonder of this world\u003cbr\u003eThat is when, and only when,\u003cbr\u003eWe come to it.","brand":"Random House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46301028909285,"sku":"NP9781400066100","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781400066100.jpg?v=1767723513","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/celebrations-isbn-9781400066100","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}