I took a break from formalities and sat down on the floor.
To bask in the sunlight and look up at the blue skies.
I allowed a moment for myself and let out a content sigh.

Poems that Inspire!

Just felt like sharing this remarkably beautiful piece of poetry written by Maya Angelou:

Still I Rise

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 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.

BY MAYA ANGELOU

Still I Rise” from And Still I Rise: A Book of Poems.
Copyright © 1978 by Maya Angelou.
Published by Penguin Random House

Where you at?

I cannot sleep,
Is it my troubled mind, that is keeping me awake all night?
Or is it the moonlight from my window?
I try long and hard –
To go back to a peaceful world of dreams,
Where the night is dark and the sleep is deep.
But lately I’ve been up all night!
Tossing and turning,
Taking deep breaths,
Reading books,
Listening to meditative music to put me back to sleep…
Why isn’t anything helping?
What is it that I’ve been thinking?
Am I anxious or just excited?
What am I waiting for,
Or rather who am I waiting for?
No, stop it!
Stop thinking.
I need my sleep.
Let’s try going back to sleep.
Night night!

By Her Side

I am not a dragon,
I do not have a horde.
I am trapped inside this empty dark cave
With no shiny heaps of gold.

I wander aimlessly in the darkness with no real goal.
I wonder what’s in my destiny,
Is there a purpose for this existence?
I curl up in a corner and sleep like every other day.
But, who’s here today?
A little boy has walked into the cave.

He stands in front of me fearlessly and smiles.
I snarl, smoke rises from my nostrils.
He steps forward cautiously, his hand reaching towards me.
I curl deeper into the cave.
He waits patiently, his soul emitting an aura of kindness.
I rise up and breathe fire.
The boy as small as a shrimp near my feet,
Watched me in awe with no fear.
The cave was no ordinary one,
The fire melted the layer of soot away and revealed walls of gold.
The cave shone like the sun in the darkness of the night,
With a mighty dragon queen and a little boy as a guiding star by her side.