I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
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
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me. Thus begins "Phenomenal Woman," just one of the beloved poems collected here in Maya Angelou's third book of verse. These poems are powerful, distinctive, and fresh--and, as always, full of the lifting rhythms of love and remembering. And Still I Rise is written from the heart, a celebration of life as only Maya Angelou has discovered it. "It is true poetry she is writing," M.F.K. Fisher has observed, "not just rhythm, the beat, rhymes. I find it very moving and at times beautiful. It has an innate purity about it, unquenchable dignity. . . . It is astounding, flabbergasting, to recognize it, in all the words I read every day and night . . . it gives me heart, to hear so clearly the caged bird singing and to understand her notes."
This book has a dual purpose. The first is to present in a new English translation 255 representative hokku (or haiku) poems of Matsuo Basho (1644-94), the Japanese poet who is generally considered the most influential figure in the history of the genre. The second is to make available in English a wide spectrum of Japanese critical commentary on the poems over the last three hundred years.
Book and Dust Jacket both Very Good +. White cover is very bright, covered in mylard. Hinges tight. Seems barely or very carefully read. Very nice.
1967, 8vo, 115 pages. Full bound black cloth with unclipped DJ. Signed by Berryman on front free end paper. Previous owner's name appears neatly on top corner of ffep. Book is clean and crisp throughout. DJ shows light rubbing to extremities, some darkening to spine and rear panel from age. A very nice copy of this signed first edtion.
A collection of poems by the 1990 Pulitzer Prize-winning Yugoslavian poet explores sadness, mystery, loneliness, and loss, simultaneous.
Half-bound in gray cloth and gray paper, with gilt titles and illustration to front, gilt titles to spine. Top edge gilt. Some rubbing to edges.
Signed and numbered limited edition. No. 150 of 400.
A later printing. Brown cloth 16mo with gilt titles & label on spine. Rear cover has serious soiling, front has minor soiling. Small chip & wear to spine. Interior is tight & unmarked.
Hand printed pamplet format, numbered 4 of 100 copies, mild sunning to title page and covers. Dj has some wrinkles and wear.
First edition. Clean, bright & tight, in VG+ DJ.
Small off-white 12mo w/ pale green decoration. Slight dampstains on page edges, serious staining & tears to DJ. Still a bright & very attractive book.
