phenomenal woman.

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
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.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them,
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing,
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
The palm of my hand,
The need for my care.
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

-angelou

for this rainy spring morning.

One innocent spring
your voice meant to me
less than tires turning
on a distant street.

Your name, perhaps spoken,
led no chorus of
batons
unrehearsed
to crush against my empty chest.

That cool spring
was shortened by
your summer, bold, impatient
and all forgotten
except when silence
turns the key
into the midnight bedroom
and comes to sleep upon your
pillow.

-angelou

when you come.

When you come to me, unbidden,
Beckoning me
To long-ago rooms,
Where memories lie.

Offering me, as to a child, an attic,
Gatherings of days too few.
Baubles of stolen kisses.
Trinkets of borrowed loves.
Trunks of secret words,

I CRY.

-maya angelou

*reading poetry in the backseat of my car at lunch while it rains - one of my most cherished and sacred moments.

kindling pt. 2

i finished reading Eat, Pray, Love and now i'm having trouble finding another book to read, although Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings six-volume series seems to be calling my name. have any of you read it?

before i move on to my next reading adventure, i wanted to share a few more amazing features about the kindle. the screen you see above with the portrait of the lovely Ms. Bronte is what the kindle looks like when it's off. everytime the kindle is switched off, a different literary image appears and remains until turned on again. i'm telling you, the liquid paper tricks the eyes!

secondly, i read Eat, Pray, Love in its entirety without ever having to recharge the battery. every night z would ask, "you still haven't charged that thing, huh?" - even he was amazed at the battery life.

lastly, it wasn't enough for z to just give me a kindle, he had to get me a cover / case for it too (that's the first picture you see). the leather case is so versatile and perfect - you would never guess it was a kindle because it looks like an organizer. it fits perfectly in my purse to take with me wherever i go in case i get bored, or decide to sneak away at lunch for a quick reading fix.

all in all, i am very impressed and happy with my kindle. i also liked Eat, Pray, Love a lot, i'm almost afraid to watch the movie because i can't imagine it being as powerful as the book.. but alas, isn't this almost always the case?

with that said, i wanted to share the final highlights of the book as promised. there were so many enchanting words written in it, but these quotes truly touched me. i hope it inspires those of you who haven't read it yet. i also hope that you guys are inspired to get the kindle if you can.

"Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it, you must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it. if you don’t, you will leak way your innate contentment."

"Famously, Gloria Steinem once advised women that they should strive to become like the men they had always wanted to marry." (something i definitely took to heart and will try to achieve, although striving to be someone so inspiring and amazing like z will be tough!)

"God long ago drew a circle in the sand exactly around the spot where you standing right now." (sometimes, you just have to let go and give into your fate...)

i love it. oxo

kindling my love for words.

one cool feature of the kindle is being able to highlight your favorite parts or add notes. it's pretty nifty and saves me time from doing what i used to do (and will probably still do), which is write down my favorite lines in a little journal a friend gave me. i started doing this when i read something i never wanted to forget in a philosophy text and my first instinct was to write it down. since then, i've been writing all sorts of random and beautiful things in that little book. it isn't very handy, though, when you're in bed, feeling lazy, and almost falling asleep. i mean, who really wants to get out of bed just to scribble something down in a notebook then?

this is why the kindle is awesome because at a click of the button - you can note and save your favorite line.. and you can bet i've found some amazing highlights in Eat, Pray, Love. Here are a few of my favorites:

".... it is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else's life with perfection."

"The resting place of the mind is the heart. The only thing the mind hears all day is clanging bells and noise and argument, and all it wants is quietude. The only place the mind will ever find peace is inside the silence of a heart." (by the way, i love the word 'quietude' and the context in which it is constantly presented in this book.)

"Life, if you keep chasing it so hard, will drive you to death. Time - when pursued like a bandit - will behave like one; always remaining one county or one room ahead of you, changing its name and hair color to elude you, slipping out the back door of the motel just as you're banging through the lobby with your newest search warrant, leaving only a burning cigarette in the ashtray to taunt you."

the spirituality of the character can become overbearing at times but i find her overall journey so addicting.

more of my favorite highlights to come, 'til then .. xoxox!