| Poem | line | Word Count |
| You may write me down in history | |
| You may trod me in the very dirt | |
| Does my sassiness upset you? | |
| 'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells | |
| Just like the moons and like suns, | |
| Just like hopes springing high, | |
| Do you want to see me broken? | |
| and lowered eyes? | |
| like teardrops. | |
| my soulful cries. Does my | |
| Don't you take it | |
| 'Cause I laugh like | |
| Diggin' in | |
| You may | |
| You may | |
| | Poem | line | Word Count |
| You may | |
| But still, like air, | |
| Does my sexiness | |
| Does it come | |
| That I dance like | |
| At the meeting | |
| Out of the | |
| I rise. Up from a past | |
| I rise. I'm a black ocean, | |
| Welling and swelling | |
| Leaving behind | |
| I rise. Into a daybreak | |
| I rise. Bringing the gifts that | |
| I am the dream and | |
| I rise, I rise, | |
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