California poet Amanda Gorman’s ‘The Hills We Climb’
When day comes we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade?
The loss we carry, a sea we must wade
We’ve braved the belly of the beast
We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace And the norms and notions of what just is
Isn’t always justice
And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it
Somehow we do it
Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken but simply unfinished
We the successors of a country and a time Where a skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president only to find herself reciting for one
And yes we are far from polished far from pristine but that doesn’t mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect
We are striving to forge a union with purpose To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man
And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us but what stands before us
We close the divide because we know, to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside
We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another
We seek harm to none and harmony for all Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true: That even as we grieved, we grew
That even as we hurt, we hoped
That even as we tired, we tried
That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious Not because we will never again know defeat but because we will never again sow division Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree
And no one shall make them afraid
If we’re to live up to our own time
Then victory won’t lie in the blade
But in all the bridges we’ve made
That is the promise to glade
The hill we climb
If only we dare
It’s because being American is more than a pride we inherit, it’s the past we step into and how we repair it
We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it
Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy
And this effort very nearly succeeded
But while democracy can be periodically delayed it can never be permanently defeated
In this truth in this faith we trust
For while we have our eyes on the future history has its eyes on us
This is the era of just redemption
We feared at its inception
We did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour but within it we found the power to author a new chapter
To offer hope and laughter to ourselves
So while once we asked, how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe? Now we assert
How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us? We will not march back to what was but move to what shall be
A country that is bruised but whole, benevolent but bold, fierce and free
We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation Our blunders become their burdens
But one thing is certain:
If we merge mercy with might, and might with right, then love becomes our legacy and change our children’s birthright
So let us leave behind a country better than the one we were left with
Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest, we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one
We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the West, we will rise from the windswept Northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the Midwestern states, we will rise from the sunbaked South
We will rebuild, reconcile and recover and every known nook of our nation and every corner called our country, our people diverse and beautiful will emerge, battered and beautiful
When day comes we step out of the shade, aflame and unafraid
The new dawn blooms as we free it
For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it
If only we’re brave enough to be it.
Amanda Gorman is the nation’s first youth poet laureate. She delivered this poem, “The Hills We Climb,” Wednesday at the inauguration of President Joe Biden.