Poetic Transformation

Creativity and imagination are important staples in reclaiming your dream of attaining success and joy. In poetry, you can find a treasure trove of profound truths about success & joy. My own treasure hunt was accentuated by my time as a student under the incomparable Dr. Maya Angelou at Wake Forest University. She showcased beauty, genius, and a message of enduring wisdom through poetry and the arts.
​In honor of your creative dreams, I offer these selected poems as beacons to inspire your path towards success and a life well lived. Enjoy!

​- Dr. Chrystal 

Phenomenal Woman - Maya Angelou

Still I Rise - Maya Angelou
 
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 backyard.
 
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.

​Start Close in - David Whyte (w/ commentary)

 Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day - ​Nikki Giovanni 

​
​Sky Diving - Nikki Giovanni 

I hang on the edge
 of this universe
 singing off-key
 talking too loud
 embracing myself
 to cushion the fall
I shall tumble
 into deep space
 never in this form
 or with this feeling
 to return to earth

 It is not tragic

I will spiral
 through that Black hole
 losing skin limbs
 internal organs
 searing
 my naked soul

Landing
 in the next galaxy
 with only my essence
 embracing myself
 as

I dream of you
​

A Dream Within a Dream - Edgar Allan Poe
 
Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow --
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
 
I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand --
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep — while I weep!
O God! Can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?