The late, great Dr. Maya Angelou—renowned poet, actress, Civil Rights activist, and professor, may not have known anything about personality disorders. But in this video of her iconic poem "And I Rise," you will know she has seen into the heart of those with one or more of the disorders or someone who has loved or coped with someone who has.
She says that everyone in the world on one night or another has gone to bed with fear, with pain, or with loss or disappointment. Yet wherever each of us shows compassion for the other--and ourselves--we have found a way to rise. There is a nobleness of the human spirit in everyone everywhere, especially those who feel stereotyped, bullied or worthless.
You can read it below, but her performance on YouTube is worth 90 seconds of your time. An amazon life-afirming message. The poem was was the center of an advertising campaign for the United Negro College Fund.
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.
Watch her recite the poem and make a few comments.