Rising from the Garbage?

         Maya Angelou “Still I Rise”

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear

I rise

Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear

I rise

 

 

When we find ourselves sinking in the filth of the world and our own narrow outlook, can we rise?

Maya Angelou certainly felt so and when we read her poem, “Still I Rise“, we see this truth. But for ourselves and our circumstances how many of us live this truth?

In the spirit of rising from the proverbial ashes, let me add this small nugget from my own reflection:

Knowing

Do you feel sorry for me?

You see me crawling through the

garbage

nostrils clogged with refuse

From those who are above me?

Do you feel my pain?

As I’m being trampled by the

vicious tongue of my critic

impaled by your vicious lies

decapitated by your superior

wisdom.

Do your bones ache,

As I go through a tunnel that

gets smaller and smaller

breaking my bones as i go?

I go,

but there is no candle lit for me.

But still i move

Despite my bones being broken

As the space continues to get smaller and smaller.

Why don’t I stop?

Give up?

Accept?

How would I know what it feels

like to win,

If I do  not get out on the other side?

We all should rise above everything that threatens to destroy us in our weakest hours.