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 soulfull cries

Does my haughtiness offend you?

Don't you take it awful hard

'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines

Digging 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 hatefullness

but still, like air I'll rise

Does my sexiness upset you?

Does it come as a suprise?

That I dance as though I've got diamonds

At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history

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 wonderously 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

Give me your hand

Make room for me

to lead and follow

you

beyond this rage of poetry

Let others have

the privacy of

touching words

and love of loss

of love

For me.

Give me your hand