Honoring Missouri Natives Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes for National Poetry Month

National Poetry Month, observed in April, is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Poetry was one of my favorite genres of literature to share with students, perhaps because I, too, am a poet. I loved exposing them to moving poems by motivational poets. None fits that description better than Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes. My students loved their work as much as I did.

I had no idea for most of my years in the classroom that I would ever move from New York to Missouri, so I was unaffected by the knowledge that both these poets were Missouri natives. Angelou, who died in 2014, was born in St. Louis, and Hughes, who died in 1967, was born in Joplin. My seventh-graders learned the stories of both -- the hardships they endured, the perseverance they embraced, the language they perfected.

From the rape Angelou's mother's boyfriend perpetrated upon her to her five-year mutism that resulted to Mrs. Bertha Flowers, who used literature to draw her out of that world of silence, my students and I found inspiration in Angelou's story. We discussed the effect one person can have on another. Angelou, considered one of the greatest voices of our time, almost went unheard because she would not speak after being abused as a 7-year-old. Literary history would have lost a legendary voice had Mrs. Flowers never reached out to her. We would never know the famous "Still I Rise" poem, one of my favorites. Over the years, it inspired my students, who were able to find their own story in its words. No matter the background or race, everyone relates to obstacles and appreciates the hope that they can overcome them.

In 2008, colleagues and I had the honor of taking a group of students to the Palace Theatre in Albany, New York, for "An Evening with Maya Angelou" after I had introduced them to her poetry. I remember telling them that she was getting on in age, and they may never have this opportunity again. Indeed, Angelou would have celebrated her 88th birthday yesterday. She left us with words that continue to inspire us.

Excerpts of "Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou read:

You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may trod me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Â….

You may shoot me with your words,

You may cut me with your eyes,

You may kill me with your hatefulness,

But still, like air, I'll rise.

Â….

Out of the huts of history's shame

I rise

Up from a past that's rooted in pain

I rise

I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,

Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear

I rise

Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear

I rise

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,

I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise

I rise

I rise.

Then there's Hughes, whose white classmates mistreated him and whose own black father did not like blacks. He, like Angelou, found his voice through the negative influence of an adult, but in the most unusual of ways. Having never written poetry beforehand, Hughes, one of only two black students in his class, was named "class poet," simply because he was black. The teacher and class believed all blacks had rhythm. Since poetry requires rhythm, they bestowed that designation upon him. Hughes considered it racist, but it was then that he began to write poetry. Even a stereotype steeped in racism can turn into something positive if one allows it. He did, and we benefited.

Hughes' "Mother to Son" was a staple in my lesson plans and another poem my students loved.

"Mother to Son"

By Langston Hughes

Well, son, I'll tell you:

Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

It's had tacks in it,

And splinters,

And boards torn up,

And places with no carpet on the floor --

Bare.

But all the time

I'se been a-climbin' on,

And reachin' landin's,

And turnin' corners,

And sometimes goin' in the dark

Where there ain't been no light.

So boy, don't you turn back.

Don't you set down on the steps

'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.

Don't you fall now --

For I'se still goin', honey,

I'se still climbin',

And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

National Poetry Month is an appropriate time to pay homage to great poets whose work and lives teach us lessons that will remain with us throughout our own. Missouri's own Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes certainly qualify.

Adrienne Ross is an editor, writer, public speaker, online radio show host, former teacher and coach, Southeast Missourian editorial board member, and owner of Adrienne Ross Communications. Reach her at aross@semissourian.com.