<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;" class="">Still I Rise</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">You may write me down in history</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">With your bitter, twisted lies,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">You may trod me in the very dirt</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">But still, like dust, I'll rise.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Does my sassiness upset you?</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Why are you beset with gloom?</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Pumping in my living room.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Just like moons and like suns,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">With the certainty of tides,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Just like hopes springing high,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Still I'll rise.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Did you want to see me broken?</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Bowed head and lowered eyes?</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Shoulders falling down like teardrops.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Weakened by my soulful cries.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Does my haughtiness offend you?</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Don't you take it awful hard</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Diggin' in my own back yard.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">You may shoot me with your words,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">You may cut me with your eyes,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">You may kill me with your hatefulness,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">But still, like air, I'll rise.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Does my sexiness upset you?</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Does it come as a surprise</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">That I dance like I've got diamonds</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">At the meeting of my thighs?</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Out of the huts of history's shame</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I rise</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Up from a past that's rooted in pain</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I rise</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Leaving behind nights of terror and fear</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I rise</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I rise</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I am the dream and the hope of the slave.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I rise</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I rise</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">I rise. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> - Maya Angelou</div></body></html>