Still I Rise by Maya Angelou

admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:22:58 +0000

This poem was mentioned in the Sunday New York Times Diagramless by Fred Piscop. I don’t have the puzzle in front of me, but the clue was something like “Maya Angelou poem “Still _____” The poem is called “Still I Rise,” but there seem to be a lot of people who think the poem title is “And Still I Rise.” I am patiently waiting for someone to clue the title for this poem in a crossword puzzle as something like “Angelou poem about yeast?” I suppose it’ll have to be me, won’t it?

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 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 my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

If there was anything I could do for Maya Angelou, I’d like to do it.

Crossword Bebop » Still I Rise

Still I Rise by Maya Angelou