Customer Reviews

Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This poem is one of Maya Angelou's best writings...and thats saying something!
This a is very moving and powerful poem. There will surely be many coppies of this poem, wrapped up under my family's christmas tree this year.
I recomend this work to any Angelou fan and also to anyone who is a fan of peace and generosity, of faith or of freedom...This is a true gem in a sea of rocks...timeless and splendid.
This is one writer who proves that she still has the power to move the people.
If I could give this book 50 stars, I wouldn't hesitate for a second.

This book - of only one poem - holds a special place in my heart. To be such a minute writing, I find its meaning to be mighty.
This Christmas I will be 18, and as my younger sister and I decided we didnt want gifts from Santa any more, because we could see the problems it put on our parents and the family as a whole. It saddens me to think about this, but even more due to the fact it wasnt paying for gifts that created a burden; I am very fortunate, and my family has enough money to get most anything we would like throughout the year. The burden felt in my family was what to buy. After discussing how I felt about the holidays with my sister, we decided it would be benefecial to the entire family to only request things the whole family could enjoy.
I bought this book for the family to mark in history both the last gift, and again the first gift to the family. This Christmas has been, byfar, the best Christmas ever. Maya Angelou became the inspiration we needed to realize what the holidays are really about, togetherness.
I would recommend this poem to anyone; but especially to families out there who feel like holidays in their home are not what they are really supposed to be.
In case you are curious, I ask Santa for a new refrigerator, and my sister ask for a new dining table. I cant wait for Christmas morning!

This is a lovely book. It is beautifully written in the Maya Angelou format. It encompasses the true spirit of Christmas through the themes of war, peace and spiritual unity.

I purchased it for my son who is almost 8 years-old, but I feel this book is best suited for an older child who has a deeper undersatnding of poetic language and can better understand these themes.

A warm read for adults- expressing an all inclusive approach toward mankind and religion.

After already being impressed with Dr. Maya Angelou having seen her at two conferences speaking, I was again brought to tears by her compassionate and loving pages found in "Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem" for its its profound message of peace. A peace that we need to find internally and then share with others. This doesn't have to be just a Christmas message, but a message that resounds all year long.

Ms. Angelou is certainly one of our national, no, global treasures. In this brief but poignant piece, she captures the simplicity of Christmas that overwhelms our human attempts to outshine its basic message with fluff and materialism. Unabashedly Christian in her message, she never stoops to sectarianism but celebrates the gift of love for all people; an inclusivity that gathers together, not separates, races and cultures, nationalities and even religions into one powerful embrace. Given that, this is not the typical "P.C." pabulum that one so often hears about how we should just all get along, but a marvelous prophetic vision of God's plan for humanity.

I would highly recommend this book for just about anyone you longs to hear a word of hope and healing in the midst of a sometimes dark and troubled world.

I have given this little book as a Christmas present for the past several years with the request that the recipients read it and pass the gift on to someone else. The world needs this piece (peace) and you will feel a deep sense of purpose after reading it.

I saw Maya Angelou and Oprah performing from this the other day on Oprah and I immediately ordered this book as Christmas presents for the entire family. It is just beautiful!

Beautiful book with a beautiful message of peace. Filled with with the message of love and acceptnace of every human being on earth.

This is a wonderful book. The minister in my church recited this during Advent one year and because of his reading, I decided to buy the book. This would be a good addition in a church library as well as a public school library.

Maya Angelou's Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem is an inspirational holiday tale worded more for adults than children. It is especially moving during these troubling days of hardship, terror, and war. This reviewer found it easier to summarize the poem's mystical theme as it affected him.

In the stillness of a winter night when darkness covers earth at an early hour, we dress warmly to walk with our children to a community gathering in a nearby market square. A fresh snow falls over that which crunches under each footstep. We look about. See! Back there behind us, a man plays his sax--peaceful, quiet Christmas carols; and over there, children enjoy the moment as they finish their snowman then join with their parents to enter our quiet procession.

As we pass by homes, brightly lit decorations inside and outside display, for all to see, the wish residents hold in their hearts. It is a hope that for this one night at least, amazing peace can reign here and throughout the world. And when we reach town hall, we meet our beloved friends. Our flickering candle flames light our faces: the old, the young; dark skin, light skin. We have come to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and his message of peace for our world. We eat together; we sing together; we talk together. Our hearts want this joyous covenant of peace to last forever.

We, the Jew and the Jainist, the Catholic and the Confucian, implore you to stay a while with us ... we, Baptist and Buddhist, Methodist and Muslim, say come.

I would recommend Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem to any person who is seeking a spiritual boost, saddened by the lack of peace in today's world. If the book is purchased for children, I'd hope the poem is read to them so that unfamiliar words and ideas can be clarified as needed; for example, "We interrogate and worry God ... does the covenant you made with us still hold?"

Maya Angelou's carefully chosen words and her book's stirring pictures prompt images of peace and quiet in one's soul. I found myself reading Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem several times just to enjoy the feeling of walking as one with the people in the pictures.

Other fascinating reads:
A Rocky Mountain Christmas: Yuletide Stories of the West
The Journey Home
The Lake That Stole Children: A Fable