Shaker, why don't you sing? / Maya Angelou.

Awaking in New York -- A good woman feeling bad -- The health-food diner -- A Georgia song -- Unmeasured tempo -- Amoebaean for daddy -- Recovery -- Impeccable conception -- Caged bird -- Avec merci, mother -- Arrival -- A plagued journey -- Starvation -- Contemporary announcement -- Prelude to a parting -- Martial choreograph -- To a suitor -- Insomniac -- Weekend glory -- The lie -- Prescience -- Family affairs -- Changes -- Brief innocence -- The last decision -- Slave coffle -- Shaker, why don't you sing? -- My life has turned to blue.

"Shaker, Why Don't You Sing? is author and poet Maya Angelou's fourth volume of poetry, published by Random House in 1983. It was published during one of the most productive periods in Angelou's career; she had written four autobiographies and published three other volumes of poetry up to that point. Angelou considered herself a poet and a playwright, but was best known for her seven autobiographies, especially her first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, although her poetry has also been successful. She began, early in her writing career, alternating the publication of an autobiography and a volume of poetry. Many of the poems in Shaker focus on survival despite threatened freedom, lost love, and defeated dreams. Over half of them are love poems, and emphasize the inevitable loss of love. 'Caged Bird', which refers to Angelou's first autobiography, is contained in this volume." -- from Wikipedia.