"Everyone in the world has gone to bed one night or another with fear, or pain, or loss, or disappointment. And yet each of us has awakened, arisen, and somehow made our ablutions, you know, the human beings. And said, morning, how are you? Fine, thanks, and you? It's amazing, wherever that abides in the human being, there is the nobleness of the human spirit. It's spiced up, black and white, Asian, Spanish, Native American, pretty, clean, thin, fat, vile, and celibate. You may write me down in history with your bitter twisted lies. You may trod me in the very dirt, but still like dust. Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? Just cause I walk as if I have oil wells pumping in my living room. Just like suns and like moons, with the certainty of times. Just like hopes springing high, still I 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 sassiness upset you? Don't take it so hard, just cause I laugh. As if I have gold mine, digging 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 all? 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's 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 miraculously clear, I rise. Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave. I am the hope and the dream of the slave. And so, naturally."