Brenden Annotates Angelou's "Still I Rise"

Everyone in the world has gone to bed one night or another in fear, or pain or loss or disappointment.

And yet each of us has awakened, arisen, and somehow made our ablutions seem other human beings.

And said, mornin', fine, thanks." And you?

It's amazing; wherever that abides in the human being, there is the noblest of the human spirit.

Despite it all, black and white, asian, spanish, native american, the pretty, plain, thin, fat

Vow to celebrate; we 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 rise.

Does my sassieness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom, just cause I walk like I've got oil wells in my living room?

Just like suns and moons, with the certainess of tides, just like hope springing eyes, still I rise.

Do you want to see me broken? Bowed heads and lowered eyes

Shoulders falling down like teardrops, weakened by my soulful cries

Does my sassieness upset you? (laugh)

Dont take it so hard cause I laugh (laugh)

As if I have gold mines diggin' in my own backyard

You can shoot me with your words. You can cut me with your lies. You can kill me with your hatefulness.

But just like life, I rise.

Does my sexiness offend you?

Aw, does it come as a surprise that I dance?

As if I have diamonds at the meeting of my thighs. Out of the huts of history shame, I rise.

Up from a past rooted in pain I rise.

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 miraculously clear; I rise.

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the hope and the dream of the slave.

And so naturally, there I go rising.