Watch Maya Angelou recite Olympic poem 'Amazement Awaits'

By foxsports
Published

The world lost a lyrical giant on Wednesday with Maya Angelou's death at the age of 86. 

While the poet, memoirist and civil rights activist was famous for penning "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" and the poem "On the Pulse of Morning" for the 1993 inauguration, Angelou also penned "Amazement Awaits," a poem commissioned by the US Olympic Committee in honor of the 2008 Beijing Summer Games. 

"The Olympics Committee ask me to write a poem for the 2008 Olympics and I offer it again for the 2012 Olympians," Angelou wrote on her Facebook page during the London Games. "I commend you all, Americans and winners across the globe for what you do is win the human spirit and therefore we are all winners."

Here is Maya Angelou reciting her Olympic poem: 

And here are the words to "Amazement Awaits" below:

H/t NBC OlympicTalk.