A Brave and Startling Truth (1995)
Quotes from book
A Brave and Startling Truth
"A Brave and Startling Truth" is a poem by Maya Angelou. Critic Richard Long called it her "second 'public' poem". Angelou delivered it in June 1995, at the 50th anniversary commemoration of the United Nations, two years after she read "On the Pulse of Morning" at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton, which made her the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961. Later that year, her publisher Random House published an edition of the poem.
“It is possible and imperative that we discover
A brave and startling truth.”
A Brave and Startling Truth (1995)
“If we are bold, love strikes away the chains of fear from our souls.”
A Brave and Startling Truth (1995)
A Brave and Startling Truth (1995)
Context: p>When we come to it
We, this people, on this wayward, floating body
Created on this earth, of this earth
Have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety
And without crippling fear When we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous, the true wonders of this world
That is when, and only when
We come to it.</p
