Sad news, poet Maya Angelou passed this morning at age 86.

Her very best in my opinion, Still I Rise, is below?

***​


You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may tread 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.​