After reading this for my first time I believe that Maya belongs in this second position...freedom...We all begin our journey and find there are rocks and stones. Maya Angelou is my bird of freedom and air. Maya Angelou is a woman of many talents including awards for acting, directing and the arts as a whole. She has even travelled and worked in the Middle East. Her voice is like no other I have heard with ...empowerment. For all. We rise!
http://http//www.famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/maya_angelou/biography



Still I Rise
by Maya Angelou

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 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.
Do you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders bowing down like teardrops.
Weakenned by my soulful cries.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I got gold mines
Diggin' 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 thats rooted in pain
I rise
Im 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 thats wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestor's gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise