Famous inspirational poems
The eternal riddle
- by P.M. Raskin 61
Israel, my people,God's greatest riddle,
Will thy solution
Ever be told ?
Fought - never conquered,
Bent - never broken,
Mortal - immortal,
Youthful, thought old.
Egypt enslaved thee,
Babylon crushed thee,
Rome led thee captive,
Homeless thy head.
Where are those nations
Mighty and fearsome ?
Thou hast survived them,
They are long dead.
Nations keep coming,
Nations keep going,
Passing like shadows,
Wiped off the earth.
Thou an eternal
Witness remainest,
Watching their burial,
Watching their birth.
Pray, who revealed thee
Heaven's great secret :
Death and destruction,
Thus to defy ?
Suffering torture,
Stake, inquisition -
Prithee, who taught thee
Never to die ?
Ay, and who gave thee
Faith, deep as ocean,
Strong as the rock-hills,
Fierce as the sun ?
Hated and hunted,
Ever thou wand'rest,
Bearing a message :
God is but one !
Pray, has thy saga
Likewise an ending,
As its beginning
Glorious of old ?
Israel, my people,
God's greatest riddle,
Will thy solution
Ever be told ?
Still i rise
- by Maya Angelou 58
You may write me down in historyWith your bitter, twisted lies,
You may tread 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 back yard.
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.Inspirational Quote
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