KAREN BRAILSFORD
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Still I Rise by Maya Angelou
Agape International Spiritual Center
​
February 28, 2021


​It was such an honor to read Maya Angelou's epic poem the last Sunday of Black History Month. I felt the palpable presence of the ancestors. Selah!​

​
Still I Rise
Maya Angelou 1928-2014

 
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.
 


Picture
© ​Karen Brailsford 2020-2022
​
  • Home
  • I am
  • Praise
  • Inspire
    • Dalai Lama Global Vision Summit (talk + guided meditation)
    • Inner Visions >
      • An Appreciation
      • Forward
      • Life As We Know It And See It
      • Precipice and Presence
      • Sentient and Prescient
      • The I Am of Resonance
      • The Glass Is Always Full
      • You Will Know
    • Sacred Landscapes (excerpts) >
      • Spiraling
      • Sacred Landscapes of the Soul
      • Go Directly to Jubilee
      • Bring the Party
      • A Life Is God Writ Large
      • Soot into Soil
      • In the Here and Now
      • Creation Story
      • In This Skin
    • Still I Rise by Maya Angelou (recitation)
    • Go Directly to Jubilee! (talk)
    • God's Love Keeps Lifting Us Higher and Higher (talk)
    • Paintings
  • Book Agenting
    • Aevitas Creative Management
    • Writer's Digest
    • His Name Is George Floyd
    • Kamala's Way
  • Write Volumes
    • Short Stories >
      • It Takes All Kinds
      • All is Nothing
      • Ever After
      • Dinner Parties
      • Shades of Love
    • Essays >
      • Floating Like Butterflies
      • Mommy, Still
    • Poems >
      • Covid: Covert No More
      • Harriet and Me
  • Media
    • Download Kit
    • Articles and books >
      • Unity >
        • Rising in Joy
        • Blessed by a Dress
        • This Is How You Pray
        • For A Reason, for a Season, or for a Lifetime
      • People: Voices From the Fight Against Racism
    • Podcasts, radio and video >
      • The Peace Studio Summit 2021
      • The Jenny McCarthy Show
      • In the Flow With Rev. Skip
      • Waking Up in Daily Life
      • The Only One in the Room
      • Bridges & Blessings with Rev. Julie
    • Press
  • Blog
  • Connect