非裔美籍的Maya Angelou女士（1928～）能歌善舞，寫詩也寫小說。柯林頓總統1993年就職典禮還邀請她獻詩。《我知道籠中鳥為何歌唱》是她第一本也是最著名的自傳小說。她在八歲遭到性侵害之後將近一年，除了哥哥之外不和任何人說話。幸好有一位黑人女士Mrs. Bertha Flowers幫助她重生。

在阿肯色州的小鎮，Bertha Flowers女士儀態氣質都像個貴族，社會地位和鎮上有錢的白人女士相當。年幼的我非常崇拜她，相形之下經營小雜貨店的祖母令人生厭。她和祖母會成為朋友真是奇怪。一個夏日下午，她來店裡買東西，祖母要哥哥幫她提東西回家，她卻要我幫忙。走在碎石子路上，她邊走邊對我說：譗老師說妳功課很好卻不說話，沒有人能強迫妳說話，但是妳要切記，語言是人和人溝通的方法。妳祖母說妳愛看書，很好，但還不夠。文字不只是白紙黑字，文字需要人的聲音去注入更深的意義。豃我牢記住她的談話因為她的話既真確又富詩意。

 "Your grandmother says you read a lot. Every chance you get. That's good, but not good enough. Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with the shades of deeper meaning." I memorized the part about the human voice infusing words. It seems so valid and poetic.

踏入她家，撲鼻而來的是濃濃的香草味。她上午就烤了香草鬆餅，還準備好冰檸檬水，特別邀請我來聊聊。我坐在餐桌旁，像個淑女小口地吃著鬆餅，眼睛被牆上的照片和嶄新的窗簾所吸引。她坐下來為我上課，要我一定不能寬容愚昧無知的人，但要多了解不識字的人；有些人無法上學但卻比大學教授還有學問。要多聽人們的生活經驗和常識，因為其中包含幾世代累積的智慧。

She said that I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and even more intelligent than college professor. She encouraged me to listen carefully to what country people called mother wit. That in those homely sayings was couched the collective wisdom of generations.
然後她拿起狄更斯的小說《雙城記》開始讀：譗這是最美好的時刻也是最壞的時刻……豃她的聲音好像歌聲一樣在曲線上滑動，我好想知道在她的小說裡面是不是也有音符？我要回家之前，她拿一本詩集要我每次背一首詩給她聽。我沒有問她為什麼特別照顧我，也沒想到是祖母拜託她和我談談。我只在乎她親自做餅給我吃並且讀書給我聽，不用說她一定很喜歡我。

I didn't question why Mrs. Flowers had singled me out for attention, nor did it occur to me that Momma might have asked her to give me a little talking to. All I cared about was that she had made tea cookies for me and read to me from her favorite book. It was enough to prove that she liked me.

Bertha Flowers女士的鼓勵和關懷重建Maya的信心也啟發了她的潛力。