Someone might take something from this as I did, Maya Angelou’s beautiful reading of her poem Still I rise. She opens this poetry reading with the following words,

“The issues that which face us all is not how to survive, obviously we are doing that, but really how to thrive. Really. Thrive with some passion, some compassion, some humour, and some style.”

She goes on to say,

“Every person in this auditorium have gone to sleep one night or another, or gone to bed one night or another, with fear, or pain, or loss, or terror, unhappiness, grief, insecurity, and yet each of us, has awakened, and risen, seen another human being and, said, ‘Morning, how are ya?”‘, ‘Fine, thanks, and you?‘,

Now wherever that abides, whether it’s behind a kneecap, or the needs of an ebow, or between the teeth, wherever that is, lives there we will find our nobleness. Not nobility, I think that a pompous word, but the nobleness of the human spirit. That we rise.”

If you have time to listen, she brings an amazing life to this poem, and she is a joy to listen to.

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.