Still I Reese by Maya Angelo you from AND STILL I RISE by Maya Angelou, copyright © 1978 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 sass in e s s 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 got gold mines Dig gin' 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 rise-Up from a past that's rooted in pain o r I s e I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and Fe r a I rise Into a daybreak that's wondrously Clari rise
Bringing the gifts my ancestors gave,
Leaving behind nights of terror and Fe r a I rise Into a daybreak that's wondrously Clari rise
Bringing the gifts my ancestors gave,
