Maya Angelou did almost everything that can be done with words — writing poems, essays, memoirs, plays, movies, and TV shows — and did all of it beautifully.

“Still I Rise” is one of her best-known and best-loved poems — a personal, honest, feisty declaration of independence. Any time a human being speaks up to declare her identity and integrity, refusing to let others define her, it’s a cause for rejoicing as far as I’m concerned.

Maybe this is something some of us need to do more often than we do — declaring to whatever may be holding us down, “I rise, I rise, I rise.” If so, here’s inspiration!

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.

(Excerpted from The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou. Read the full poem here.)