Luke &+Cyle

=MAYA ANGELOU= = **Still I Rise** = 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. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal;"> Weakened by my soulful cries.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal;"> Does my haughtiness offend you? <span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal;"> Don't you take it awful hard <span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal;"> 'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines <span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal;"> Diggin' in my own back yard.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal;"> You may shoot me with your words, <span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal;"> You may cut me with your eyes, <span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal;"> You may kill me with your hatefulness, <span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal;"> But still, like air, I'll rise.

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal;"> Does my sexiness upset you? <span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal;"> Does it come as a surprise <span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal;"> That I dance like I've got diamonds <span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal;"> At the meeting of my thighs?

<span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal;"> Out of the huts of history's shame <span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal;"> I rise <span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal;"> Up from a past that's rooted in pain <span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal;"> I rise <span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal;"> I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide, <span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal;"> Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal;"> Leaving behind nights of terror and fear <span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal;"> I rise <span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal;"> Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear <span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal;"> I rise <span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal;"> Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, <span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal;"> I am the dream and the hope of the slave. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal;"> I rise <span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal;"> I rise <span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal;"> I rise. <span style="font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal;">**Maya Angelou**

=Murdered-By: Luke Putnam- Mackey=

Murdered, the woods where animals once burrowed in the ground Murdered the place they once fed by the tree Murdered.

Where there was a mall creek where animals rested and drank, Where they played, jumped and slept Never to be seen again!

Where a field with rolling hills flattened Where a mini mall currently stands once was a lush forest Murdered.

They lived and played and slept and stayed is now gone under the plow of modern society. The time when the animals lived, Murdered

= <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Still Moving - By Cyle Hairston =

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Every day I wake up two hours before <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">most of you, sometimes I don't get to  <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">eat as much breakfast as you <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">but I'm still moving.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Every day I have to ride a l<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">oud yellow bus, hardly get any <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">sleep at all, tired out of my mind <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">still trying not to fall down from all the <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">sleep I'm losing, but I'm still moving.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Every day I have to sit in class <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">for 6 hours trying to find a way <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">to stay awake through out the day <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Wishing I could let my sight <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"> become opaque wondering if this is the school <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;"> I still should be choosing, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">but I'm still moving.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Every day I have to listen to you guys complain, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">I had to wake up an hour before I usually do, 6:30! Do you <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">know how much sleep I'm losing! Please, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">I wake up an hour before that and still keep it moving.

= = = <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 24px;">PARAGRAPHS = <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 24px;">Biography- By Cyle Hairston <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: medium; line-height: 24px;"> Maya Angelou has been many things in her life. Civil rights activist, actress, dancer, director, singer, playwright, and poet. Maya Angelou was born in St Louis, Missouri. 1928 and her child hood memories weren’t so great. She was raped by her mother’s boyfriend at the age of seven. Her uncle’s then murdered the man for this, and Maya felt responsible. She went mute for 5 years. Then Maya met a Mrs. Flowers who got her to speak again at the age of 13. As a student, she attended Mission High School, and graduated top of her eighth grade class, Then went on to go to San Francisco’s Labor School to study dance and drama. There she then dropped out and became the first female and black cable car conductor. She did return to school but got pregnant when she was a senior and had her only son Guy. Some of the books of poetry Maya Angelou has published are; Still I Rise (published December 6th, 2000), Amazing Peace (published December 01 2005 ), Phenomenal Woman (published February 01 2000), and, Celebrations: Rituals of Peace and Prayer (published October 24 2006). Some awards Maya Angelou has received are; the Presidential Freedom Award, Pulitzer Prize, the Langston Hughes Medal, and many, many, more. She’s received over 20. Right now, Maya Angelou is just doing her thing, giving speeches and still writing poetry. She is married, but I couldn’t find out specifically who her partner is. She indeed is an amazing poet and person and seeing what she had been able to do in her time just because she tried her hardest inspires me. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">