The Caged Bird: music and art set to Maya Angelou's poem

I read Maya Angelou's poem "Caged Bird" when I was nine, and the determination of the bird unfairly held in captivity to not allow his spirit to be oppressed had a profound effect on me. As in her book "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," it's about finding liberation in art and literature that allows your heart to persevere in the most despairing circumstances. The free bird has what the caged bird wants, and the caged bird doesn't even know what is out there, but he knows that what he wants is to be out of the cage in which he is imprisoned. So, he sings to be free, and he puts all of his heart and soul and might into his song of longing and desire. The caged bird sings to be heard because he has no other way of living out loud. So his only method of expression is singing. He can't fly, he can't play in the water, he can't float on a breeze; the only way to escape is to sing! The only way to be heard is to sing! The only way to operate in freedom is to sing! So......he sings!!! The free bird flies and cavorts, and if he wants to go higher, he just does it. He takes what he can because he is free to do so. He can fly, he can play, he can move. He is free to do what he wants. Nothing can or will stop him. The caged bird knows that all of his hopes and dreams will die with him, so he mourns for those as well. The free bird dreams about tomorrow's morning sun and the worms he will catch. But the caged bird knows that tomorrow he will only be angrier at the captivity that is his life and that the next day and the next day and the next day after that that what he longs for will never be realized. So he sings in desire, he sings in despair, he sings in mourning and he sings loudly. His singing gives his spirit freedom.

Most of the paintings are from my summers at art camp and my sophomore through this senior year of high school, and were incredibly influenced by my insanely awesome art teacher. The painting of the ballerina is *not* mine, but was used with permission from the artist.

The first song is "Fix You" by Coldplay and the second is a Civil War freedom song simply called "Freedom."

~ Pax / Peace ~

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Maya Angelou
• Poetry
• Art

[dansugarushman]

This is an incredible compilation of inspired original works. My 7th grade English class viewed this to create the feeling of Maya's poem, as this work captures it beautifully. The first few times I couldn't appreciate the last song, as I loved the piano piece, however the last song is just as fantastic in capturing the mood as the first. Absolutely fantastic piece of work.

Do you have sheet music for the piano piece? I would love to learn how to play it.

[SkylarkMelody]

@dansugarushman I'm so honored you played this for your class! The piano piece is a cover of Coldplay's "Fix You," and you can find the sheet music on Music Notes and a few other sites.

Thanks for your comment, and I apologize for taking so long to respond to it. I'm pursuing a double major at Stanford now and rarely ever pop onto YouTube during the school year.

Take care. : )

[QueXseraXsera]

Your artwork is lovely! I agree that this poem is inspiring, especially the line "The caged bird sings with a fearful trill of things unkown by longed for still". Great work!

[SkylarkMelody]

Thank you all for your lovely, encouraging comments. : )

[jodzandphil]

Sky...I am in absolute awe....

Not often am I left without words, but that video has pretty much done it for me!

You truly are so amazingly talented...like I said to you in my email ~ one day the world will discover you...and I cant wait to sit back and watch as it does!

Your mum is going to LOVE this...I dont think there would be any greater gift. As a young mum myself, your message to her made me cry! LOL.

Keep shining beautiful girl xox

[42oSupreme]

beautiful art and music, my friend. you have a great deal of talent and it is appreciated. and much love to inspirational mothers.

for some reason very touching, i shed a tear..?

[justjackcollins]

BEAUTIFUL. 

very inspiring, Thank you.

[2004Yvonne]

Unbelievable talent - you are a beautiful person...Your Mother is right, keep singing!

[THEARTISTINYOUTV]

Beautiful works and music. We would love to see you audition for THE ARTIST IN YOU, a new TV series in development. Please check us out of Face Book,!

[MotMaoriGurl]

Truely, truely wonderful to behold...thanky ou so much for blesing us with your talent :)

[SelvedinaBegic]

i found yu on yahoo, and saw that yu also love art,music, and that yu are very beautiful girl :] yu have an amazing talent that everybody should be able to see. keep it up and one day i get you'll become famous.

btw i almost cryed, i sound a little stupid.

[navelgazeing]

brought me to tears. thank you.

i know sounds silly to thank some1 for tears but ur an artist so u prolly know what i mean