Between Starshine and Clay

This is the poem Brenna Rubio read to us on Sunday as an invitation to consider your own strength, your own beauty, your own belatedness. And like the grain of sand in the oyster that generates a pearl, you get the sense in this poem that Lucille Clifton has made something beautiful out of those things that have not yet killed her. Is there a word or phrase in these words that you could hold on to as encouragement for you day?

won't you celebrate with me
what i have shaped into
a kind of life? i had no model.
born in babylon
both nonwhite and woman
what did i see to be except myself?
i made it up
here on this bridge between
starshine and clay,
my one hand holding tight
my other hand; come celebrate
with me that everyday
something has tried to kill me
and has failed.
- Lucille Clifton