The Hill We Will Climb

 

Amanda Gorman

"“Now more than ever, the United States needs an inaugural poem,” Gorman said. “Poetry is typically the touchstone that we go back to when we have to remind ourselves of the history that we stand on, and the future that we stand for.”

The snow poured in Brooklyn.

We walked out to get another COVID test.

The orange one left the White House.

 Snow to sunlight in Brooklyn,

A new day...

Four years ago, the teenager asked, did she win?

No I told her, looking down, that morning in November.

 By January, I was in DC to speak out for democracy.

Courage, we said to ourselves before shouting during that inauguration. 

 I saw tear gas and millions of pink hats from around the globe...millions…

Have u ever seen millions?

Some people hid away. 

Others were really there these last four years, those who organized and spoke out.

They were there for us all.

Robert Frost looked out into sunlight.

It was so bright; he could not read.

  Maya Angelou felt the pulse of morning

And all that came before.

Remember and move forward...rise and resist.

108 years ago women were beaten the police fighting for the vote here.

And then in a new century, a female vice president took the oath.

Kamala!!!

“No one shall make them afraid....” said Amdana.  

“The past we step into and how we repair it. History has its eyes on us.”

From hope to hate to healing,

Bided reminded us that 400 years is too long to wait for justice.

“"This is a time to heal in America," said Biden in Wilmington, Delaware. "Now this campaign is over. What is the will of the people? What is our mandate? I believe it’s this: Americans have called upon us to marshal the forces of decency, the forces of fairness, to marshal the forces of science, and the forces of hope in the great battles of our time. The battle to control the virus, the battle to build prosperity, the battle to secure your family’s healthcare. The battle to achieve racial justice and root out systemic racism in this country. The battle to save our planet by getting the climate under control. The battle to restore decency, defend democracy, to give everybody in this country a fair shot."

"Today we celebrate the triumph not of a candidate, but of a cause: the cause of democracy. The people — the will of the people has been heard, and the will of the people has been heeded," Biden said.

"To overcome these challenges, to restore the soul and secure the future of America requires so much more than words. It requires the most elusive of all things in a democracy: unity."

"With unity we can do great things, important things," Biden said.

"Without unity, there is no peace. Only bitterness and fury. No progress, only exhausting outrage. No nation, only a state of chaos. This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge, and unity is the path forward."

"We'll press forward with speed and urgency for we have much to do in this winter of peril and significant possibilities. Much to repair, much to restore, much to heal, much to build and much to gain," he said.

And  a young woman pointed upward.

Amanda Gorman: (00:00)
Mr. President, Dr. Biden, Madam Vice President, Mr. Emhoff, Americans and the world, when day comes we ask ourselves where can we find light in this never-ending shade? The loss we carry asea we must wade. We’ve braved the belly of the beast. We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace. In 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.

Amanda Gorman: (01:10)
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 our 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 will forever be tied together victorious. Not because we will never again know defeat, but because we will never again sow division.

 

Amanda Gorman: (02:22)
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 her 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 forest that would shatter our nation rather than share it. Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy. This effort very nearly succeeded.

Amanda Gorman: (03:07)
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 it 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?

Amanda Gorman: (03:56)
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.

Amanda Gorman: (04:36)
So let us leave behind a country better than 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 00:04:49] hills of the West. We will rise from the wind-swept Northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution. We will rise from the Lake Rim cities of the Midwestern states. We will rise from the sun-baked South. We will rebuild, reconcile and recover in every known nook of our nation, in 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.