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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