Legend Series: Maya Angelou

I am starting a new series where I expose on some grand pieces of poetry I feel the whole wide world can further appreciate in depth. I will also be looking into the lives lived or being lived by these great people.

There is therefore no more suitable piece to start the series with than the piece – Still I Rise- written by the amazing and impressive Maya Angelou who lived from (1928-2014).

Image result for royalty free photos of maya angelou
Image of Maya Angelou

When I saw the beautiful Maya Angelou (May her soul rest in peace), and when I read her impressive pieces, I was touched, I was impressed, I was inspired. Thus, I hope to inspire you with one of her pieces which is closest to my soul as a fellow black woman thriving in this wonderful world full of downs, but much more ups. 

before you proceed to this grand piec: Legend.

With the help of  http://www.biography.com:

“Marguerite Annie Johnson Angelou (April 4, 1928 to May 28, 2014), known as Maya Angelou, was an American author, actress, screenwriter, dancer, poet and civil rights activist best known for her 1969 memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, which made literary history as the first nonfiction best-seller by an African-American woman. Angelou received several honors throughout her career, including two NAACP Image Awards in the outstanding literary work (nonfiction) category, in 2005 and 2009.”


Still I Rise by Maya Angelou

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may tread 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 back yard.

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. 


For more on Maya and the piece Still I rise, please visit the following links used for the creation of this post.

https://www.biography.com/people/maya-angelou-9185388

https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/still-i-rise/

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