The Hill We Climb

Amanda Gorman, the nation's first-ever youth poet laureate, read the following poem during the inauguration of President Joe Biden. I've added punctuation and spacing.

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 just-ice.

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.

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.

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.

MAY 2023 UPDATE: A school in Miami Lakes, Florida, the Bob Graham Education Center, has barred students through the 5th grade from accessing this poem. It's one of several works challenged by one parent, Daily Salinas, for what she called critical race theory, “indirect hate messages,” gender ideology, and indoctrination.

PZ Myers quoted Ms. Salinas: “I'm not a reader. I'm not a book person. I'm a mom involved in my children's education.” PZ observed, “The state of Florida allows an idiot who doesn't read to dictate the contents of school libraries. Maybe they should only accept criticisms of books from people who pass a test of basic literacy and who can actually demonstrate that they read and understood the whole book in question. But that would be un-American!”

Ron Filipkowski wrote, “Florida is now demonstrating exactly what happens when you ‘let the parents decide’ what gets taught in public schools. One nutty parent can wreck the educational experience of hundreds of other kids.” Ed Krassenstein agreed. “People begin categorizing anything that talks about race as falling into the realm of CRT. Or they use the law to justify removing books and curriculum that can teach real history. This isn't free speech. This is using the law to chill the free speech of others. The poem is a lecture on peace, love, unity, and freedom.”