Psychopath and Narcissist Survivors Support Group

dollydagger · Joined: 22 Feb 2007 Posts: 331 Location: ATL, GA

Top500 Poems : 2 / 500
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Still I Rise

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 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.

Maya Angelou

Matilda · Joined: 27 Feb 2007 Posts: 1834

I love this poem. Funnily enough Dolly, this was given to me just when I was in the getting ready to leave stage when I was with my ex p....

thankyou for this.
Very Happy

Matilda
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"I used to have an open mind, but my brains kept falling out."-Steven Wright

Theresa13 · Joined: 16 Feb 2007 Posts: 1547 Location: , Ontario

My DD has the first verse tattooed on her upper back.........I too love Maya , and of course DD said " I have nothing to be ashamed of , I didn't do anything wrong, I was a little girl who trusted my Dad."
Gotta tell ya I wept like a baby cause it's so very true.......Thanks for posting Dolly..........Always, Theresa
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I've given my memoirs far more thought than any of my marriages. You can't divorce a book.