I chose the poem âStill I Riseâ by Maya Angelou.  This poem is one of my favorite poems, and is very powerful.  While you can interpret the poem a few different ways I chose to interpret it as a celebration of women, and to show how women have overcome and risen up.  The poem also has to do with slavery, so as to not take away from the true meaning of the poem I took a photo of the story of Sojourner Truth from my daughters book about incredible women in history.  Over the past two weeks I took many photos, and uploaded them each day in no special order to show the celebration of women.  Some of those photos are in the final 10, and some are ones that I havenât already posted.  I chose to use a photo for each verse of the poem, so these photos are in that particular order.  I loved doing this project because not only am I always thinking of ways that things relate to poetry and music, but I love being able to capture people in their natural element and expose their true beauty.  I especially loved celebrating all these women, and giving focus to things that they donât necessarily give much focus toâ their intelligence, beauty, creativity, work ethic, determination, nurturing spirit, spunkiness and ferocity.  Now for the poem:
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, Iâll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
âCause I walk like Iâve 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 Iâll 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?
Donât you take it awful hard
âCause I laugh like Iâve got gold mines
Digginâ 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, Iâll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like Iâve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of historyâs shame
I rise
Up from a past thatâs rooted in pain
I rise
Iâm 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 thatâs 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.