And Still I Rise

by Dr Maya Angelou

Saying bye now, no need to try now, You don’t have the proper charms. Too sentimental and much too gentle

Then you rose into my life Like a promised sunrise. Brightening my days with the light in your eyes. I’ve never been so strong, Now I’m where I belong.

I don’t like reminiscing Nostalgia is not my forté I don’t spill tears On yesterday’s years

I keep on dying, Because I love to live.

Solitude was the climate in his head Emptiness was the partner in his bed, Pain echoed in the steps of his tread,

Sun, rain, curving sky Mountain, oceans, leaf and stone Star shine, moon glow You’re all that I can call my own.

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.

Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I’ll rise.

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?

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I may be last in the welfare line Below the rim where the sun don’t shine But getting up stays on my mind Bump d’bump bump d’bump.

Into the alleys Into the byways Into the streets And the roads And the highways Past rumor mongers And midnight ramblers Past the liars and the cheaters and the gamblers On Your word On Your word. On the wonderful word of the Son of God I’m stepping out on Your word.

Because of Your mercy, I have another day to live.

Because of Your mercy, Falling down on me like rain, Because of Your mercy, When I die I’ll live again, Let me humbly say, Thank You for this day.

All riddles are blues, And all blues are sad, And I’m only mentioning Some blues I’ve had.

Dreams are petted, like cherished lap dogs misunderstood and loved too well.

Much knowledge wrinkles the cerebellum, but little informs.

Great desires strain into petty wishes. You did arrive, smiling, but too late.

Through all the bright hours I cling to expectation, until darkness comes to reclaim me as its own. Hope fades, day is gone into its irredeemable place and I am thrown back into the familiar bonds of disconsolation.

The tacit fact is: the awful fear of losing is not enough to cause a fleeing love to stay.

Had I known that the heart breaks slowly, dismantling itself into unrecognizable plots of misery,

Had I known the heart would leak, slobbering its sap, with a vulgar visibility, into the dressed-up dining rooms of strangers,

Had I known that solitude could stifle the breath, loosen the joint, and force the t...

Had I known that loneliness could keloid, winding itself around the body in an ominou...

Life is too busy, wearying me. Questions and answers and heavy thought. I’ve subtracted and added and multiplied, and all my figuring has come to naught. Today I’ll give up living.

Just Beyond my reaching, an itch away from fingers, was the river bed and the high road home. Now Beneath my walking, solid down to China, all the earth is horror and the dark night long. Then Before the dawning, bright as grinning demons, came the fearful knowledge that my life was gone.