Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem    by Maya Angelou Order:  USA  Can Random House, 2005 (2005) Hardcover      Reviewed by Hilary Williamson Maya Angelou's stirring Christmas poem opens darkly on nature's potential to disturb our lives (as it has done to so many this year) - 'Thunder rumbles in the mountain passes ... The sky slips low and gray and threatening.' She tells us that we question ourselves and God, 'Are you there? Are you there, really?' She speaks of the 'Glad Season' that encourages the world to 'come away from rancor', and of hope's brightening effects even on hate 'which crouches breeding in dark corridors.' And she lauds the whisper of Peace that grows and grows and grows 'Louder than the explosion of bombs.' Her voice is, as always inclusive - 'We, Baptist and Buddhist, Methodist and Muslim, say come. / Peace.' This remarkable poem builds to a crescendo of a conclusion, in which I could hear echoes of voices from all over the world adding to Angelou's powerful invocation: 'Peace, My Brother. / Peace, My Sister. / Peace, My Soul.' If any words could make it so, they would be Maya Angelou's in Amazing Peace. Note: Opinions expressed in reviews and articles on this site are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of BookLoons. Find more NonFiction books on our Shelves or in our book Reviews