<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><div><b>“Still I Rise”</b> by Maya Angelou</div><div><br></div><div>You may write me down in history</div><div>With your bitter, twisted lies,</div><div>You may tread me in the very dirt</div><div>But still, like dust, I'll rise.</div><div><br></div><div>Does my sassiness upset you? </div><div>Why are you beset with gloom? </div><div>'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells</div><div>Pumping in my living room.</div><div><br></div><div>Just like moons and like suns,</div><div>With the certainty of tides,</div><div>Just like hopes springing high,</div><div>Still I'll rise.</div><div><br></div><div>Did you want to see me broken? </div><div>Bowed head and lowered eyes? </div><div>Shoulders falling down like teardrops.</div><div>Weakened by my soulful cries.</div><div><br></div><div>Does my haughtiness offend you? </div><div>Don't you take it awful hard</div><div>'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines</div><div>Diggin' in my own back yard.</div><div><br></div><div>You may shoot me with your words,</div><div>You may cut me with your eyes,</div><div>You may kill me with your hatefulness,</div><div>But still, like air, I'll rise.</div><div><br></div><div>Does my sexiness upset you? </div><div>Does it come as a surprise</div><div>That I dance like I've got diamonds</div><div>At the meeting of my thighs? </div><div><br></div><div>Out of the huts of history's shame</div><div>I rise</div><div>Up from a past that's rooted in pain</div><div>I rise</div><div>I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,</div><div>Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.</div><div>Leaving behind nights of terror and fear</div><div>I rise</div><div>Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear</div><div>I rise</div><div>Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,</div><div>I am the dream and the hope of the slave.</div><div>I rise</div><div>I rise</div><div>I rise.</div></div><div><br></div> ——————————————-<br><br><div dir="ltr"><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><br></div></div></body></html>