52 Poems: Week 1 Maya Angelou

For 2013, I've decided to post a poem week, read it every day, and possibly commit it to memory. I hope these bits of language might inspire my writing, but mostly I just long for some structure to sharpen my mind and carve my tongue around words. Here is my first...

The Lesson
By Maya Angelou

Baby Kiara's sleeping fist...

I keep on dying again.
Veins collapse, opening like the
Small fists of sleeping
Children.
Memory of old tombs,
Rotting flesh and worms do
Not convince me against
The challenge. The years
And cold defeat live deep in
Lines along my face.
They dull my eyes, yet
I keep on dying,
Because I love to live.