Touched by an Angel by Maya Angelou
We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.
Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.
We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love’s light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.
You cannot beg, borrow, buy or steal your way out of bondage to the human condition. There is only one door, one way that leads to freedom.
The path to this door is overgrown from disuse and choked by the myriad of false concepts which germinate from the destructive trinity of fear, greed and doubt. This trinity is nothing in and of itself. It exists only by means of stolen power and make no mistake, there is but one power: love.
Perfect love casts out all fear, greed and doubt. Go ahead, be bold. Yield all to love.
Gregory Hake 
What an incredible poem. Maya Angelou has beautifully evoked the ways which love comes and frees us from all of our limitations. If we want to live a life that is truly worthwhile, love must be a central part of it.
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Love costs all we are and will ever be. Perfect love is really an all or nothing experience. And is the only thing that really sets us free!!!!
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Reading something like this and then letting it sink in, you have to scratch your head and wonder how did we ever come to be the way we are today? How and why, as a whole, do we forgo the very thing that makes us noble, proud, virtuous and full of courage? The thing that confers health and sustains optimism?
Reading something like this and realizing its profound truth, to arrive at a meaningful solution to the problems of isolation and conflict comes without question, just as the integrity it takes to live out its belief.
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Love Maya Angelou! Thanks!
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This is a previous reminder of the One Power that transcends all and is never withdrawn unless we withdraw ourselves from Love’s Presence. Thank you!
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I love this poem and your commentary. It lifts my spirit and reminds me where my faith in love has led me in past and illuminates the doorway to it, right in front of me. I’ve endured the long dark night of fear but as I touched the delight and liberty that love renders, it awakened my dulled heart and nothing was the same. There is one power. That was profound to me. Learning to let love work in my life is what my life has become. I appreciate your amplification, thank you.
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Thank you for sharing Maya Angelou’s poem – it certainly inspires a reverence for the power of love, and an awe for the magic of life at our fingertips!
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Beautiful, thank you
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