Category: Poems

Still I Rise

A Poem by Maya Angelou (1928-2014)

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me we 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.

Hero Fincorp aims to be known as India’s Next-Gen Ultra Lean Credit Champion !

This poem from their Annual Report captures their ambition and determination.

I’m forever blowing bubbles, pretty bubbles in the air,

They fly so high,nearly reach the sky.

Then like my dreams they fade and die,

Fortune’s always hiding,I’ve looked everywhere,

I’m forever blowing bubbles, pretty bubbles in the air.

-Chant of West Ham Football supporters

You’re deep in love, his love is true,
He’s never met a girl like you,
And though I hope he never will,
My own advice is— take the pill.

And when you wed, you silly thing,
Demand a big fat diamond ring,
For when you’re old and fat and lame
A diamond loves you— just the same.

Though you might rather die if he
Died tragically at twenty-three,
Take my advice and while you’re calm
Get life insurance— where’s the harm?

Though hand in hand and side by side
You turn to face life’s rising tide,
And he loves you and you love him:
Take my advice— and learn to swim.

–wrote Felix Dennis

The gods have shown me favour,
(If any gods there be),
Yet were my nature braver
I might dispute the fee.

For gold and gold’s devices
Are cloaks before men’s eyes,
Their virtues and their vices,
Breed envy in disguise.

And envy fosters fawning,
That parasite of trust,
A worm of loathing, spawning
A plague of self-disgust.

When slaves of acclamation
Are met, by chance or plan,
We meet a reputation,
But seldom meet the man—

Fame’s amour shines too brightly,
As once it did for me,
Yet those who wear it lightly,
In time, may rue the fee.-by Felix Denis