nMaya Angelous unforgettable collection of poetry lends its name to the documentary film about her life, And Still I Rise, as seen on PBSs American Masters. n Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. n Im not cute or built to suit a fashion models size n But when I start to tell them, n They think Im telling lies. n I say, n Its in the reach of my arms, n The span of my hips, n The stride of my step, n The curl of my lips. n Im a woman n Phenomenally. n Phenomenal woman, n Thats me. n n Thus begins Phenomenal Woman, just one of the beloved poems collected here in Maya Angelous third book of verse. These poems are powerful, distinctive, and fresh--and, as always, full of the lifting rhythms of love and remembering. And Still I Rise is written from the heart, a celebration of life as only Maya Angelou has discovered it. n n It is true poetry she is writing, M.F.K. Fisher has observed, not just rhythm, the beat, rhymes. I find it very moving and at times beautiful. It has an innate purity about it, unquenchable dignity. . . . It is astounding, flabbergasting, to recognize it, in all the words I read every day and night . . . it gives me heart, to hear so clearly the caged bird singing and to understand her notes.n