In Pursuit of Poetry

March 5 - Maya Angelou - Still I Rise

March 5, 2018
And now for an inspirational woman, Maya Angelou, who lives on in the fire of her words. I may not be Afro-American, but I am a woman and her words raise me up and instil a power in me that no one can take away. I thank her for her graciousness and her tenacity to rise above her beginnings. I thank her for sharing her words and making her mark within a world that needed to hear what she had to say.

Still I Rise
By Maya Angelou

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may tread 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.

Source: https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/still-i-rise-by-maya-angelou

Whenever I read a Maya Angelou poem I feel her fierceness and her strength. She speaks from her experience and her words resonate with me. She rose from a dirt poor child who was molested and dealt with racial prejudice to a grand woman who took chances and risks that made her a graciously strong Afro- American woman who lead the way for other young women to follow. She rose and her light shines for others to follow.

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