Still I Rise
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own back yard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
Maya Angelou
She is a wonderfully wise woman kat – great post xoxox
Yes great, enjoyed it Kat x
Have always loved that poem. Now I can read whenever I want to. Thank you. Love, Jackie xxxx
Maya Angelou has long been a favourite of mine kat. along with the Bronti sisters. I thought i had read all her poems? seems not it would seem. This poem says it all and sooo Maya!. Thanks kat for sharing it us. :). xx
Know this well and love it!
Mxx
Thanks kat, just love Maya xxx
glad you all enjoyed reading it..i really like her writing,too..xxxx
when I retired from Coast Guard, of a morning some 16 years ago, I quoted Angelou’s ending stanza from “The Rock Cries Out to Us Today”
And say simply
Very simply
With hope
Good morning.
One observation: She is so strongly influenced by Walt Whitman’s poetry she seems almost to channel him.