When Great Trees Fall

When great trees fall,
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
lumber after safety.

When great trees fall
in forests,
small things recoil into silence,
their senses
eroded beyond fear.

When great souls die,
the air around us becomes
light, rare, sterile.
We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,
see with
a hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened,
examines,
gnaws on kind words
unsaid,
promised walks
never taken.

Great souls die and
our reality, bound to
them, takes leave of us.
Our souls,
dependent upon their
nurture,
now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed
and informed by their
radiance,
fall away.
We are not so much maddened
as reduced to the unutterable ignorance
of dark, cold
caves.

And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.


Maya Angelou

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when we were kids
laying around the lawn
on our
bellies

we often talked CHARLES BUKOWSKI
People are not an interruption of our business. People are our business.
A man's worst difficulties begin when he is able to do as he likes.
It is hard to look up to a leader who keeps his ear to the ground.
The most wasted day of all is that in which we have not laughed.
The more intelligent a man is, the more originality he discovers in men. Ordinary people see no diff...
The intelligence is proved not by ease of learning, but by understanding what we learn.
Communication is something so simple and difficult that we can never put it in simple words.
Like threads of silver seen through crystal beads
Let love through good deeds show.
How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.
In everyone's heart stirs a great homesickness.
That is the supreme value of history. The study of it is the best guarantee against repeating it.
Our wisdom comes usually from our experience, and our experience comes largely from our experience.
One thing about the school of experience is that it will repeat the lesson if you flunk the first ti...
To reprove small faults within due vehemence, is as absurd as if a man should take a great hammer to...
Faith is like electricity. You can't see it, but you can see the light.
Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it by the handle of anxiety, or by the handle of...
Some families can trace their ancestors back three hundred years, but can't tell you where their chi...
A recent survey was said to prove that the people we Americans most admire are our politicians and d...
If a man defrauds you one time, he is a rascal; if he does it twice, you are a fool.
Flattery looks like friendship, just like a wolf looks like a dog.
Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.
Courage is always greatest when blended with meekness; intellectual ability is most admired when it ...
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Let your friends be the friends of your deliberate choice.
The man who has strong opinions and always says what he thinks is courageous - and friendless.
Friendship is love with understanding.
So few people think. When we find one who really does, we call him a genius
Your life can't go according to plan if you have no plan.
Practicing the Golden Rule is not a sacrifice; it is an investment.
Conversation is an exercise of the mind; gossip is merely an exercise of the tongue.
An expert gossiper knows how much to leave out of a conversation
To live so that you would not be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip, is to have li...
Gossip is sometimes referred to as halitosis of the mind
If you would attain greatness, think no little thoughts.
We are born brave, trusting and greedy, and most of us remain greedy.
People are changed, not by coercion or intimidation, but by example.
Children are natural mimics; they act like their parents in spite of every effort to teach them good...
The guilty catch themselves.
Good habits are formed; bad habits we fall into.
If happiness could be brought, few of us could pay the price.
Happiness will never come to those who fail to appreciate what they already have.
Happiness is in the heart, not in the circumstances.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood.
Hatred is a boomerang which is sure to hit you harder than the one at whom you throw it.
Hate pollutes the mind.
If we miraculously became the people we hate, how lovable we would find ourselves.
To feel "fit as a fiddle" you must tone down your middle.
Our health always seems much more valuable after we lose it.
A patient going to a doctor for his first visit was asked, "And whom did you consult before coming t...
"Oh," replied his patient, with no malice aforethought, "he told me to come and see you."
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Honesty is a question of right or wrong, not a matter of policy.
It is a pleasure to give advice, humiliating to need it, normal to ignore it.
It is almost impossible to smile on the outside without feeling better on the inside.
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One look around us ought to show that all our arbitrary measures and bounds have been clamped on us ...
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Successful men follow the same advice they prescribe for others.
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Age withers only the outside.
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The best answer to answer to anger is silence.
The size of a man is measured by the size of the thing that makes him angry.
A lot of good arguments are spoiled by some fool who knows what he is talking about.
People who know the least always argue the most.
If you look for the positive things in life; you will find them.
What we are doing at the moment is more that just one thing added to the rest; it is a memoir.
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He that boasts of his own knowledge proclaims his ignorance
It is better to live richly than to die rich.
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We cannot be too earnest, too persistent, too determined, about living superior to the herd-instinct...
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Shortchange your education now and you may be short of change the rest of your life.
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Catch your people doing something right and let them know you appreciate it.
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I am grateful to be a woman. I must have done something great in another life.
MAYA ANGELOU
I work very hard, and I play very hard. I'm grateful for life. And I live it - I believe life lo...
MAYA ANGELOU
I'm just someone who likes cooking and for whom sharing food is a form of expression.
MAYA ANGELOU
I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.
MAYA ANGELOU
The thing to do, it seems to me, is to prepare yourself so you can be a rainbow in somebody else'...
MAYA ANGELOU
Information helps you to see that you're not alone. That there's somebody in Mississippi and...
MAYA ANGELOU
Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessi...
MAYA ANGELOU
One isn't necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we can...
MAYA ANGELOU
If we don't plant the right things, we will reap the wrong things. It goes without saying. And y...
MAYA ANGELOU
History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived...
MAYA ANGELOU
I'm convinced of this: Good done anywhere is good done everywhere. For a change, start by speaki...
MAYA ANGELOU
What humility does for one is it reminds us that there are people before me. I have already been pai...
MAYA ANGELOU
Cooking certain dishes, like roast pork, reminds me of my mother.
MAYA ANGELOU
We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.
MAYA ANGELOU