Continue - a Poem by Maya Angelou

My wish for you

Is that you continue

Continue

To be who and how you are

To astonish a mean world

With your acts of kindness

Continue

To allow humor to lighten the burden

Of your tender heart

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In a society dark with cruelty

To let the people hear the grandeur

Of God in the peals of your laughter

Continue

To let your eloquence

Elevate the people to heights

They had only imagined

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To remind the people that

Each is as good as the other

And that no one is beneath

Nor above you

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To remember your own young years

And look with favor upon the lost

And the least and the lonely

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To put the mantle of your protection

Around the bodies of

The young and defenseless

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To take the hand of the despised

And diseased and walk proudly with them

In the high street

Some might see you and

Be encouraged to do likewise

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To plant a public kiss of concern

On the cheek of the sick

And the aged and infirm

And count that as a

Natural action to be expected

Continue

To let gratitude be the pillow

Upon which you kneel to

Say your nightly prayer

And let faith be the bridge

You build to overcome evil

And welcome good

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To ignore no vision

Which comes to enlarge your range

And increase your spirit

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To dare to love deeply

And risk everything

For the good thing

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To float

Happily in the sea of infinite substance

Which set aside riches for you

Before you had a name

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And by doing so

You and your work

Will be able to continue

Eternally