You may write me down in history <br />With your bitter, twisted lies, <br />You may tread me in the very dirt <br />But still, like dust, I'll rise. <br /> <br />Does my sassiness upset you? <br />Why are you beset with gloom? <br />'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells <br />Pumping in my living room. <br /> <br />Just like moons and like suns, <br />With the certainty of tides, <br />Just like hopes springing high, <br />Still I'll rise. <br /> <br />Did you want to see me broken? <br />Bowed head and lowered eyes? <br />Shoulders falling down like teardrops. <br />Weakened by my soulful cries. <br /> <br />Does my haughtiness offend you? <br />Don't you take it awful hard <br />'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines <br />Diggin' in my own back yard. <br /> <br />You may shoot me with your words, <br />You may cut me with your eyes, <br />You may kill me with your hatefulness, <br />But still, like air, I'll rise. <br /> <br />Does my sexiness upset you? <br />Does it come as a surprise <br />That I dance like I've got diamonds <br />At the meeting of my thighs? <br /> <br />Out of the huts of history's shame <br />I rise <br />Up from a past that's rooted in pain <br />I rise <br />I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, <br />Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. <br />Leaving behind nights of terror and fear <br />I rise <br />Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear <br />I rise <br />Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, <br />I am the dream and the hope of the slave. <br />I rise <br />I rise <br />I rise.<br /><br />Maya Angelou<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/still-i-rise/
