Annotations for Performance: Tempo

Or pain or loss

Or dissapointment

And yet each of us has arisen

Somehow made our ablutions seem other humans beings

Pretty, plain, thin

Fat

We rise

With your bitter, twisted lies

You may trod me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Just like suns and like moons

Weakened by my soulful cries

Don'e take it so hard just cause I laugh

You can shoot me with your words

You can cut me with your lies

You can kill me with your hatefulness

But just like life, I rise

Awe, does it come as a surprise?

Like I've got diamonds at the meeting of my thighs

Out of the huts of hickory shame, I rise

Up from the past that's rooted in pain, I rise

Welling and swelling I bear in the tide

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear, I rise

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave

I am the dream and the hope of the slave

And so naturally,

There I go rising.