Maya Angelou, We Wear The Mask

The Mask

by Maya Angelou

We wear the mask that grins and lies.
It shades our cheeks and hides our eyes.
This debt we pay to human guile
With torn and bleeding hearts…
We smile and mouth the myriad subtleties.
Why should the world think otherwise
In counting all our tears and sighs.
Nay let them only see us while
We wear the mask.

We smile but oh my God
Our tears to thee from tortured souls arise
And we sing Oh Baby doll, now we sing…
The clay is vile beneath our feet
And long the mile
But let the world think otherwise.
We wear the mask.

When I think about myself
I almost laugh myself to death.
My life has been one great big joke!
A dance that’s walked a song that’s spoke.
I laugh so hard HA! HA! I almos’ choke
When I think about myself.

Seventy years in these folks’ world
The child I works for calls me girl
I say “HA! HA! HA! Yes ma’am!”
For workin’s sake
I’m too proud to bend and
Too poor to break
So…I laugh! Until my stomach ache
When I think about myself.
My folks can make me split my side
I laugh so hard, HA! HA! I nearly died
The tales they tell sound just like lying
They grow the fruit but eat the rind.
Hmm huh! I laugh uhuh huh huh…
Until I start to cry when I think about myself
And my folks and the children.

My fathers sit on benches,
Their flesh count every plank,
The slats leave dents of darkness
Deep in their withered flank.
And they gnarled like broken candles,
All waxed and burned profound.
They say, but sugar, it was our submission
that made your world go round.

There in those pleated faces
I see the auction block
The chains and slavery’s coffles
The whip and lash and stock.

My fathers speak in voices
That shred my fact and sound
They say, but sugar, it was our submission
that made your world go round.

They laugh to conceal their crying,
They shuffle through their dreams
They stepped ’n fetched a country
And wrote the blues in screams.
I understand their meaning,
It could an did derive
From living on the edge of death
They kept my race alive
By wearing the mask! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

NOTES:
An adaptation of the poem by Paul Lawrence “We Wear the Mask”

[NuanceSociety]

"I'm too proud to bend and too poor to break, so I laugh" 😭🔥

[windlillylawson]

I could hear it in her voice and see it on her face that she was going to cry. It's our ancestors, it's our history, it's our truth

[tanyapineda]

One of the most extraordinary women to walk this earth.

[sammichaels]

This woman changed my view on literature during the end of my school days. I went from the edge of failure and not attending lessons to getting a B in the final tests. My teacher loved Maya Angelou and taught her words with all the passion and emotional she could, she believed in the beauty of the words Maya Angelou spoke. She's motivated me to start writing myself and I will be uploading these on my channel. I may not be able to speak words like Maya Angelou but there's an unbelievable sense of fulfilment in expressing yourself in writing. I hope she can rest knowing how many people she has inspired and gave meaning into their lives.

[how.disability.justice]

i love that she honored the woman's "survival apparatus" instead of thinking of her as strange and pathologizing her

[pizee]

It rarely gets deeper than this. This breaks me every. single. time.

[marciaermey]

I cry everytime i hear this poetry....a description of how many of us survive this disrespectful World. A little showing of the teeth and a flat laugh.

[centerfold]

When she laughs at the end then sheds tears

[MrArtVein]

Literally every professional black person in corporate America

[iamlethibe]

“they kept my race alive by wearing the mask”

[oneblessedladyallsbrook]

This embodies the pain of being black in every country that despises our skin. Rest in power beautiful Queen.

[amarisamaris]

This WOMAN WAS/IS even in the death the millions of mutes voices of slaves and their ancestors 🙌🏽👏🏽❤️

[nurseporter]

This gives me chills! Wow, she is timeless.

[phindy]

"70 years on this earth and the little girl I work for calls me girl..." 😭😭😭😢

[afterthestorm]

Dearest Maya—I spent a year reading every book you wrote. I learned so much from your storytelling. You embraced each decade of your life so fully. You shared the insights gained, you embraced an artful life, you healed from your deep wounds as you lived WITH those wounds. You extended such grace to others. Thank you for daring to tell the stories. Still, we rise!

[l.a.patterson]

We could use Miss Maya Angelou' s wisdom now more than ever.

[SashaFiercer]

I first read this poem at secondary school, age 13 and it resonated with me then because it reminded me of my mother, grandmother and grandfather all arriving home from various jobs, multiple jobs, and when you asked them about how their day went, they’d turn horrible stories of the racism they’d faced into funny anecdotes that would have my sisters and I laughing. They were the Windrush generation, and they made me so proud. I’m glad to say, I remember Miss Maya’s poem word for word to this day.

[dezreequest]

A writer who breathes life into every word. Eternally in awe of this woman🥺

[kelleyceleste]

I experienced the honor to have met this Extraordinary Divine Feminine Energy when I was 12yrs old and she came to speak at my middle school in Berkeley California. I cleverly ask to be excused to the restroom at the time she was due to arrive. I waited for her out front and she pulled up in a Volvo and politely asked me "is there a good place to park around here?"
I told her "You are the Queen of Quill"! "I was hoping to meet you one day!...and that royalty such as yourself get VIP parking on the campus!"
She and I walked and talked in the courtyard for what seemed like Forever and the Wisdom She gave me I will Always Cherish!
Love her and her son for being a dedicated mentor to my daughter's high school english class.
Thank You for your Template of Energies!
A True Legendary Human

[nataliebarnett]

'They kept my race alive by wearing a mask'. I don't know why am crying 😭 listening to that line. thank you my ancestors thanks you for letting my parents having this beautiful proud black girl that's me thank you