STILL I RISE.....

 

You may write me down in history;
With your bitter, twisted lies;
You may trod me in the very dirt;
But still, like a true champion, I'll rise.

Does my continued victory upset you?
Why does my triumph give you sleepless nights?
Ask your own conscience and you'll get the answer;
Because you want to emulate me but is not able to do so.

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 arrogance offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard;
Because whatever you may say at my back;
I refuse to give a bloody damn?

You may shoot me with your words;
You may cut me with your eyes;
You may kill me with your hatefulness;
But still, like wind, I'll rise.

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;
I am the dream and the hope and the future;
For whatever be the odds against me,
Whomsoever be the one against me,
Wherever be the conspiracy against me waged,
Still, like an eternal phoenix, from the ashes,
I rise
I rise
I rise.

-ma