A brilliant collection of poetry from the beloved and bestselling author of I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS.

'A brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman' BARACK OBAMA

The incomparable Maya Angelou has given us many riches in both her poetry and her autobiographical writing. In this collection of verse she is at her exuberant best, and yet has a new bittersweet mellowness. She sings the pleasures and pains of ageing, and chronicles history and heartbreak and love - these are Maya Angelou's themes so richly explored in cadences and rhythms of infinite inventiveness.

'She moved through the world with unshakeable calm, confidence and a fierce grace . . . She will always be the rainbow in my clouds' OPRAH WINFREY

'She was important in so many ways. She launched African American women writing in the United States. She was generous to a fault. She had nineteen talents - used ten. And was a real original. There is no duplicate' TONI MORRISON