Poetry For The Dark Moon
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 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 my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
Digging Maya Angelou!! Thanks for posting that Mystic!
and you know what? I love this painting too! I was actually chuckling to myself that this beautiful woman in the painting (if she existed) would not be able to get a job modeling in modern times because she’s “too fat”. LOL!
Gorgeous poem! Really, Mystic, you have the best taste.
love this poem, always though it very saturnine – ancestors, perseverance, surprising sexiness..
I didn’t know Ben Harper covered this – he does such a great job with that beautiful musci to this poem. He makes it sound so effortless!! Thanks goldfleeceRF that is just divine…
Just what I needed to be reminded. Thanks Mystic
Beautiful.
Oh Mystic got tears in my eyes. Today was rising again…thank you for the extra and that lovely pix. x
It’s a great poem, sort of smooth and jarring at once. Hits earth and air tones really strongly for me. Or in Pegasus Talk – Sacral and Third Eye Chakra ignition
Maya Angelou is one of my favorite poets. She is also one of my favorite fonts of wisdom, such as:
“The first time someone shows you who they are, believe them.”
“I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.”
“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”
“Courage: the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can’t practice any other virtue consistently.”
Love those! Especially the first one. So true.
thank you mystic….still i rise…needed that in these times
What an inspiring poem!
I love the line ‘I am the dream and the hope of the slave’…. Just wow!
Gem, yesterday, read your article “Stop the Boats”….Had no idea. Obviously each part of the world has it’s challenges that other parts don’t know about.
Thanks for reading it Sweet P! x
amazing. Thank youu.
Many thanks, Mystic. Your posts are like an intergalactic, Cosmo human gallery with no entry fee. Are you in Xanadu? X
That is one perfect female form.
LOve the line about ‘dancing like there are diamonds
at the meeting of her thighs’………that’s NOT a surprise!
Ooh, that gave me the shivers.
Love poem and picture- I adore Klimt but had never seen this one!!!! I’m always inspired by your choose of images…but Im seriously out of pocket because they send me on mad purchasing quests (like having paintings or shoes shipped halfway across the world!) they should come with a financial health warning
Love.
thankyou!
how fitting and amazing.
Inspiring poem, inspiring aries woman …
Oh wow! Yours is the second blog I’ve read today that quotes Maya Angelou. Serious synchronicity because I don’t follow that many blogs.
Reread the poem. It so fits what the dark moon’s doing in my life atmos.
Am finally taking on Australian Customs to have the gender on my passport changed from female to male because I’m sick of worrying every time I go through customs both here and abroad (yes, I’ve been bailed up here at the Australian border when I returned from OS and had to go through the rigmorole of explaining my situation to some 12 year old who just wanted to get on TV because Border Patrol or something were filming at the airport that day).
Am rising above the rejection from university when I applied for a writing course to hopefully do an MEd instead to really cement my career in elearning.
Just got a payrise so I now earn more than my boss did in the job I left 6 months ago. Actually, I earn more than any of my past bosses did, which is nice – especially seeings some of them tried to hold me back.
And I’m going to the Orlando for a conference in May and am tacking on a little holiday (Disney World, the Everglades, Major League Baseball .:D )
I had a few really tough years but I feel like I have the power to rise above it to finally succeed.
Sounds great Herby. Good for you and congrats for the raise, rising above, the change of passport and the wonderful Vay-Kay! I have not bee to Disney World nor Florida for that matter.
YaY Herby ! Personal growth ! Payraise ! Vacation ! Travel !
Your garden looks great too (I peeked) very glad to hear things are going so well ! Now I have to look up slater.
A slater is an insect that lives in the ground. It’s a beetle with a soft shell a bit like a cockroach’s shell (but it’s not a cockroach).
I went as a 12yo child but don’t remember much. I have been looking at pictures of the roller coasters online. And the water parks … I hope it’s warm in Florida in mid-May
Haven’t been to House of Mouse, Hogwarts got the thumbs up report from a co-worker. Thanks for the slaters description, and you must be utra buff with all the clay digging and bike hauling ! Virgos love their dirt, yeah ?!
Grand Mystic, Thank You !!! For Keeping the Pulse and Sharing Your Gifts.
Hits Home With Me !!!!! Love is All there is !!!!
Joy joy! I too needed this today
Great to see the rest .. I only know the Ben Harper “I’ll Rise” version that omits the female
Have a listen … it is empowering!
geez i wish i read that before i made a fool of myself again to my ex, this dark moon really has done my head in im so embaressed
You’ve posted this poem before. Really, this and the Derek walcott poem are some of the BIGGEST gifts you have given me through this site. So, so amazing. xxx
My soul sort of feels recalibrated after this stuff.
Good! And no i did not post it previously, i linked to it…Important diff as try never to repeat-post…that would be awful…xx
Love it! Very apt for me right now.
Oh god that says everything, everything, I’ve been ‘saying’ to the ex in actions for sometime now. Love it.
This pic kinda disturbs me – she’s so white & anatomically incomplete & o I don’t know, she just looks so priveleged, with all the classical statues – & then there’s the small dark head-bowed thorn-in-the-foot figure behind her. Is it her injured shadow self – or am I just being dark moony ?
Looove the poem
I’ve reached for this poem a few times this year…..
It’s perfect for my Aries/Cappy combo.
aaaahhhhh so apt for my work situation at the moment… and still a rise and go to work… to shine
Yes! The dark moon has me mellow. I have been thinking about this poem .. and voila its right here. Thanks mystic!
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rrrRAH! So appropo. Love it.