You don't have to wish you could be strong.
It takes courage to stay alive when you feel trapped and in pain.
You didn't know it,
but you've been strong all along.
You don't have to wish you could feel like you had somewhere to belong.
You're human.
You're in a club bigger than you could ever imagine.
So go ahead. Sing your song.
You don't have to be afraid you aren't enough.
You standing here proves you can push through when the going gets rough.
Bottom line, you don't have to think, wish, or be afraid of anything
Because you already are everything.

I thought that I'd convinced myself that this time I would be okay
That I could get through goodbye without crying
That today
I would say
To myself the things that made me happy
But it looks like today
I've yet to find a way
To be okay
Knowing that I cannot stay

It's the little things
Little things push me down
Run me through
Run me down
Heartbreak is big
But it's the little things that do it

A little thing like
The inability to
Tell you how proud
I am of you
Of all that you do
Of all the big achievements
And the little things

My lungs will not contract
For air does not exist
Within this dimension
Where I see my hands and wrists
My legs
My feet
But no-one else around me
Everything blurs
Maybe for the tears
Maybe for the lack of oxygen
I shake and quiver
Scream with no sound
For I cannot breathe

runaway from the pain
cut my wrist in the rain
silver birds fly away
i know death is a shame
especially when they have fame
who am i? just a name
we are one in the same
both heartache and pain
you make me feel some kinda way
but i cut my veins
to send endorphins to my brain

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 back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may **** 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.

sometimes
I’m lucky
only I cross
the borders
of tangled
thoughts,
my mind, it’s -
messy, so messy, it will take eternity
cleaning it, carefully
but I’m scared
not to live my sacred fantasy

sometimes
I’m happy
only I enter
the banter
of silent
whispers,
my mind, it’s -
crazy, so crazy, it will take ages
treating it, slowly
but I’m scared
not to read my unique pages