Amanda Gorman

This week saw the inauguration of Joe Biden into office, marking the end of a particularly fractious phase of American history. The whole ceremony was enjoyed around the world as millions of people took a collective sigh of relief and began at last to feel hopeful once again after years of anxiety and growing social tension. One of the most moving performances however was the poetry reading of Amanda Gorman, the youth poet laureate and the youngest person to read at a presidential inauguration ever. She read her remarkable poem ‘The Hill We Climb’ that you can read in full here.  Gorman is twenty two and was raised in Los Angeles by her mother. She has an auditory processing disorder as well as a speech impediment and is hypersensitive to sound. She became a delegate for the United Nations in 2013 and in 2016 she founded the nonprofit organization One Pen One Page, a youth writing and leadership program. Through hard work and speech therapy she overcame all these obstacles to carve a way for herself in the world and harness her voice for positive change. 

“I always saw it [my speech impediment] as a strength because since I was experiencing these obstacles in terms of my auditory and vocal skills, I became really good at reading and writing. I realized that at a young age when I was reciting the Marianne Deborah Williamson quote that 'Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.’ Her words, her determination and her passion for improving the world we all share with her talent should be a huge inspiration to us all, proving that what limits you does not need to hold you back. For Gorman, this is just the beginning, and she has her sights set on one day being at an inauguration all of her own:  “2036 I am running to be president of the United States. So you can put that in your iCloud calendar.”

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 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 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. 

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 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?’

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 golden 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. 

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.