Live Your Life On Purpose: Inspiration: Still I Rise

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inspiration

Still I Rise by Maya Angelou [poetry] 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

certanity 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 backyard. 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 i 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

dreamand the

hope of the

slaves. I rise, I rise, I rise."