Poems


 * 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? <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Bowed head and lowered eyes? <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Shoulders falling down like teardrops. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Weakened by my soulful cries.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Does my haughtiness offend you? <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Don't you take it awful hard <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Diggin' in my own back yard.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">You may shoot me with your words, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">You may cut me with your eyes, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">You may kill me with your hatefulness, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">But still, like air, I'll rise.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Does my sexiness upset you? <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Does it come as a surprise <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">That I dance like I've got diamonds <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">At the meeting of my thighs?

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Out of the huts of history's shame <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">I rise <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Up from a past that's rooted in pain <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">I rise <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Leaving behind nights of terror and fear <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">I rise <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">I rise <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">I am the dream and the hope of the slave. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">I rise <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">I rise <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">I rise.


 * <span style="color: #3c605b; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 20px;">I know why the caged bird sings ****<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 20px;">by Maya Angelou **

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">A free bird leaps on the back

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Of the wind and floats downstream

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Till the current ends and dips his wing

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">In the orange suns rays

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">And dares to claim the sky.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">But a BIRD that stalks down his narrow cage

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Can seldom see through his bars of rage

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">His wings are clipped and his feet are tied

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">So he opens his throat to sing.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">The caged bird sings with a fearful trill

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Of things unknown but longed for still

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">And his tune is heard on the distant hill for

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">The caged bird sings of freedom.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">The free bird thinks of another breeze

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">And the trade winds soft through

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">The sighing trees

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">And the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Lawn and he names the sky his own.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">But a caged BIRD stands on the grave of dreams

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">His shadow shouts on a nightmare scream

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">His wings are clipped and his feet are tied

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">So he opens his throat to sing.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">The caged bird sings with

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">A fearful trill of things unknown

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">But longed for still and his

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Tune is heard on the distant hill

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">For the caged bird sings of freedom.


 * <span style="color: #3c605b; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 20px;">Touched by An Angel ****<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 20px;">by Maya Angelou **

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">We, unaccustomed to courage

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">exiles from delight

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">live coiled in shells of loneliness

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">until love leaves its high holy temple

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">and comes into our sight

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">to liberate us into life.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Love arrives <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">and in its train come ecstasies <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">old memories of pleasure <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">ancient histories of pain. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Yet if we are bold, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">love strikes away the chains of fear <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">from our souls.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">We are weaned from our timidity <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">In the flush of love's light <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">we dare be brave <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">And suddenly we see <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">that love costs all we are <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">and will ever be. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Yet it is only love <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">which sets us free.


 * <span style="color: #3c605b; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 20px;">The Lesson ****<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 20px;">by Maya Angelou **

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">I keep on dying again.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Veins collapse, opening like the

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Small fists of sleeping

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Children.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Memory of old tombs,

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Rotting flesh and worms do

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Not convince me against

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">The challenge. The years

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">And cold defeat live deep in

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Lines along my face.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">They dull my eyes, yet

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">I keep on dying,

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Because I love to live.