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Tuesday
Poetry is doing some heavy lifting in this year’s Olympic games. Or at least it’s helping uplift the transcendent Simone Biles, who has borrowed the line “And still I rise” from Maya Angelous’s poem and had it tattooed on her collarbone. As she explains,
Before I got this tattoo, it was a saying that I loved. Obvious, Maya Angelou, and I was like “And Still I rise” is perfect because I feel like that’s kind of the epitome of my career and my life story cause I always rise to the occasion and even after all of the traumas and the downfalls, I’ve always risen.
Although unquestionably the greatest gymnast of all time, with multiple twists and turns named after her, Biles faced a torrent of criticism from rightwing haters when she withdrew from some events in the 2020 Olympics four years ago when coming down with a case of the “twisties.” It appears that these detractors take special delight when athletes of color, especially women, don’t live up to the hype. (They also cheered at Megan Rapinoe’s failure in the 2023 World Cup, even though Rapinoe was player of the match, Golden Boot winner, and Golden Ball winner in the 2019 Olympics.) So when Biles talks about rising to the occasion “even after all of the traumas and the downfalls,” she knows what she’s talking about.
Although she’s currently dealing with a calf injury, she is still dazzling the world, and yesterday she led the U.S. team to the next stage of the competition. Here’s the poem:
Still I Rise
By Maya Angelou
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod 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 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, 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.
The poem also applies to Kamala Harris, and there are YouTube videos (including this one) that intersperse Angelou reading the poem with shots of the presumptive Democratic nominee. And yes, there are people who are offended by Black women’s sassiness and haughtiness, by their laughter and their dancing. These detractors would indeed like to see broken women:
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by my soulful cries?
Biles is currently leaving behind her “nights of terror and fear” and, like Angelou’s black ocean, leaping high and wide. And rising like hopes springing high on the floor exercise. And rising like air on the uneven bars. And dancing on the balance beam like she’s got diamonds at the meeting of her thighs.
She rises. She rises. She rises.
