Friday, September 24, 2004

Encouragement

I know you're here for the politics. This will only take a moment.

That marvelous, ageless woman, personification of the Goddess, Maya Angelou, is on my mind this morning after receiving a wonderful message from Rich (as we were talking about Ms. Angelou just yesterday). I keep a copy of her poems "Caged Bird" and "Still I Rise" nearby, and forget to bring them out often enough. I sense someone else needs to read the latter today, and so, here it is:

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 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.


And, just in case the Asshat in Chief can read, here's an excerpt of another of her poems, just for him...

Now if you listen closely
I'll tell you what I know
Storm clouds are gathering
The wind is gonna blow
The race of man is suffering
And I can hear the moan,
'Cause nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone

Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.


It is not that I have confidence,
but I believe if I fail, so what?
Now I have the chance to try again.

A woman who is convinced that she deserves to accept only the best
challenges herself to give the best.
Then she is living phenomenally.

We are living art,
created to hang on, stand up, forbear, continue,
and encourage others.

--Maya Angelou

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