a Poem by Amanda Gorman.

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Mr. President, Dr. Jill Biden,

Madam Vice President, Mr. Emhoff, Americans and The World

One day comes we ask ourselves

“where can we find light in this neverending shade?”

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The Loss we carry, a Sea we must wade

We 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.

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And yet, the dawn is ours before we knew it

Somehow we do it

Somehow we weathered and witnessed

A nation that isn’t broken, but simply unfinished.

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We the Successors of a Country in 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.

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And yes we are far from polished,

far from pristine

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But that doesn’t mean

we aren’t striving to form a union that is perfect.

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We are striving to forge a Union with Purpose

To compose a Country committed

To all Cultures, Colors, Characters and Conditions of man.

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And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us

But what stands before us.

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We close the divide because we know to put our Future first.

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We must first put our differences aside.

We lay down our arms

So we can reach our arms to one another.

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We seek harm to noone and harmony for all –

Let the globe – (we the people),

where nothing else –

say, this is

true.

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That even as we grieved we grew

That even as we hurt we hoped,

That even as we‘re tired we tried

That we’ll be forever tied together victorious

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Not because we will never again know defeat,

But because we will never again sow division.

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Scripture tells us to envision that everyone

shall sit under their own vine and fig tree,

And no one should make them afraid.

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If we’re to live up to our own time,

Then victory won’t lighten the blade,

but in all the bridges we made,

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That is the promise to glade,

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The hill we climb.

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If only we dare it because being American

is more than a pride we inherit –

It’s the past we step into and how we repair it.

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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.

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But while democracy can be periodically delayed,

It can never be permanently defeated.

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In this truth,

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in this faith we trust.

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For while we have our eyes on the future,

our History has its eyes on us.

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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.

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But within it we found the power to author a new chapter

To offer hope and laugh or to ourselves,

So while once we ask

“how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe?“

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Now we assert,

“How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?”

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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.

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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 blenders become their burdens –

But one thing is certain.

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If we merge Mercy with might,

And Might with right,

Then love becomes our legacy in change –

Our children’s birth right.

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So let us leave behind a Country better

than the one we were Left

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With every breath from our bronze-pounded Chest

We will raise this wounded World into a wonderous one.

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We will rise from the gold-limb Hills of The West

We will rise from the wind-swept North East

Where our forefathers first realized Revolution.

We will rise from the lake-rimmed Cities of the Midwestern States

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We will rise from the sun-baked South

And We will rebuild, reconcile and recover

And every known nook of our nation

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in every corner called our country

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Our people diverse and beautiful

will emerge battered and beautiful.

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When day comes we step out of the shade

aflame and unafraid

a new dawn

b’llooms as we free it.

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For there is always light

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if only

we are brave enough to see it.

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If only

we are brave enough to be it.

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