“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.”

Still I Rise by Maya Angelou

Maya is one of my favorite poets/writers and I know I’ve quoted this before, but I find this poem so powerful. This does not only relate to the words and actions of others, but this can also pertain to the thoughts and words we feel about ourselves. Self-acceptance is so crucial because even with all of our “believed to be flaws,” we are amazing individuals. Of course the poem, as a whole, has so many deep layers of self acceptance, ancestral pride and acceptance, strength among adversity and racism, acceptance of female empowerment and the list goes on. Remember, regardless of your situation, you will always “rise.”No matter what, smile through adversity and act as if you have “oil wells” and “gold mines” in your “living room” and “back yard.” Rise through your day, rise through your situation, rise through your life without fear and always with a smile.

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.
From And Still I Rise by Maya Angelou

Works Cited:

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/still-i-rise