Yesterday, 04 April, 2018 is what would have been the poet Dr Maya Angelou’s 90th birthday!

She was born in St Louis, Missouri, and died in 2014 at the age of 86. Dr Angelou wrote more than 30 books, and had many different careers before becoming a poet/writer.

To me, this poem “Still I Rise” says to keep focused, stay strong and be proud of yourself and your talents. You are a very important person, no matter what anyone thinks! You rock!

As Maya Angelou says: “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”

Here’s the poem, and following is a YouTube video reading of “Still I Rise”, by myself. 😊I did my best to do this lovely, uplifting poem justice.

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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?

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 backyard.

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.

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Here’s the video!

https://youtu.be/9eG3bf9Xg-0