Some thoughts on Maya Angelou & poetry

A while back I mis-read an advertisement for a poetry contest and had the mis-placed courage to think I could try poetry. While in this delusionary-state I came across a poem by Maya Angelou which brok my heart by how beautiful, simple, and complex it was:

 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.

These words sound so effortless, but anyone who has tried their hand at any type of creative-writing knows how hard it is to make something like that. You can do and show so much in poetry, but it takes so much more technical skill  to do compared to prose. I really wish I had the talent  and discipline  of  my literary  heroes. The ability to not only say something, but to have the know-how of getting correct how one says it. I think poets are the best storytellers--the best writers. Even the writing of blank verse and free verse is done with an eye to precise word-order.

I've thought about the poetry of Maya Angelou and how she is able to get a direct emotional effect from every word she uses. The fact that she was as capable at reciting poetry as she was reciting it is amazing. When I think of people like her, Dylan Thomas as well as lyricists like Stevie Wonder and Kendrick Lamar--I am amazed the genius of these artists.