I rise

“You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may tread 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 back yard.

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.”

― Maya Angelou

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The sun rises every morning

Sometimes soaring into azure blue

Sometimes orange and fiery red, reflecting back upon itself

Cloud bound

Sometimes invisible

Nothing but a promise behind a curtain of gray

But it rises

And rises again

Inexorable

and so too love

and kindness

generosity

compassion

so many forces

try to destroy these better parts of the human soul

hate, fear, greed that lust for power.

Evil people fan the flame of fear,

And legislate greed

and those who seek justice and equity

are crushed, and crushed again

and yet our divine genetics

make us resilient

and always Sacred

rises, rises, rises

even out of death

resurrection