before you read this, remember that maya angelou has been sexually assaulted herself. so in a way, she is speaking to her attacker, and to you, the reader.
in her words: "When the blows of fortune fall too quickly and too deeply I have felt unsure about tomorrow, unsure about tonight, even unsure about the minute I'm living in. But I stop, I always stop, and this is my advice to everyone, if you face something that's really terrible, just stop. And remember, that you've come through things worse than that, and you've come through, and you've even dared to love someone yourself, you've dared to get up in the morning, make some ablutions, go to work, smile at somebody. Once you remember what you've come through, hope emerges again, and you begin to see hope almost as you see a sunrise - it comes up a little at a time, but it does emerge."
http://www.dancinginthedarkness.com/articles.php?show=45&arc=201
Still I Rise
by Maya Angelou
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 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 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.
in her words: "When the blows of fortune fall too quickly and too deeply I have felt unsure about tomorrow, unsure about tonight, even unsure about the minute I'm living in. But I stop, I always stop, and this is my advice to everyone, if you face something that's really terrible, just stop. And remember, that you've come through things worse than that, and you've come through, and you've even dared to love someone yourself, you've dared to get up in the morning, make some ablutions, go to work, smile at somebody. Once you remember what you've come through, hope emerges again, and you begin to see hope almost as you see a sunrise - it comes up a little at a time, but it does emerge."
http://www.dancinginthedarkness.com/articles.php?show=45&arc=201
Still I Rise
by Maya Angelou
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 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 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.
