And Still I Rise

We first met in the pages of " I know why the caged bird sings" and from that moment  you became one of my heroines.  Few stories have simultaneously haunted and uplifted me as I read your story of pain, insecurities and eventual triumph in your autobiographical work. You taught me so much by your words both written and spoken on my place in history, the beauty of my womanhood and  the spirit that rises despite the obstacles. Those were lessons that a young girl and woman who battled her own demons needed to hear and learn. Even though you did not know it your poem "And still I Rise" (from which my blog derived its name)  often gave my waning spirit a much needed boost when I felt like giving in. Thank you, Thank you, phenomenal woman you!

Great souls die and
our reality, bound to
them, takes leave of us.
Our souls,
dependent upon their
nurture,
now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed
and informed by their
radiance,
fall away.
We are not so much maddened
as reduced to the unutterable ignorance
of dark, cold
caves.

And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.”