Dr. Maya Angelous «Still I rise» er et kraftfullt stykke poesi som er inspirert av bl.a. av hennes personlige bakgrunn og erfaringen med å være afroamerikaner i USA – eller også svart i verden generelt. Dets tydelige budskap om frigjøring og overlevelse, går også igjen i mesteparten av Angelous poetiske arbeid. Årevis etter publiseringen i 1978 fortsetter teksten å berøre og inspirere nye lesere, samt krysse kulturelle og geografiske grenser. Angelou kommenterte tekstens popularitet slik i et intervju i 2008:
You know, if you’re lonely you feel you’ve been done down, it’s nice to have ‘And Still I Rise.
Her leser Maya Angelou sin egen tekst, «Still I rise»:
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.
Dr. Maya Angelou
SanseNomaden 