Maya Angelou's connection to my town

Fun fact:  Today at lunch, when she saw I had that book below, my friend Alyssa asked me:  "Was Maya Angelou from St. Louis?"  I didn't know, so I googled it and found:  "On April 4, 1928, Marguerite Ann Johnson, known to the world as Maya Angelou, was born in St. Louis, Missouri.  Due to her parents' tumultuous marriage and subsequent divorce, Angelou went to live with her paternal grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas at an early age."  I found this 2017 photo of her childhood home from St. Louis Magazine, HERE.

Today I am sharing quotes from two poems I want to remember from Maya Angelou's 1991 book of poetry I Shall Not Be Moved, that I wrote about earlier today, HERE.

"Human Family" (pp. 4-5):

. . . 

I know ten thousand women

called Jane and Mary Jane,

but I've not seen any two

who really were the same.

Mirror twins are different

although their features jibe,

and lovers think quite different thoughts

while lying side by side.

. . .

I note the obvious differences

between each sort and type,

but we are more alike, my friends,

than we are are unalike. . . .

"Preacher Don't Send Me" (pp. 38-39):

Preacher, don't send me

when I die

to some big ghetto

in the sky . . .

I'd call a place

pure paradise

where families are loyal

and strangers are nice,

where the music is jazz

and the season is fall.

Promise me that

or nothing at all.

Coincidence

You know I notice coincidences, right?  When Alyssa asked the question that started my search, she noticed today is April 4th.  Look up there again.  When was Maya Angelou born?  April 4th!  We were discussing her on her 96th birthday.  She died on May 28, 2014, mere days before I moved to St. Louis.