Amanda Gorman captures the moment in “The Hill We Climb”

Mr. President, Dr. Biden, Mrs. Vice President, Mr. Emhoff, Americans and the world. When the day comes we wonder where can we find loss in this infinite shadow? We have to wade the loss we bear. We defied the animal’s belly. We learned that calm is not always peace. In the norms and ideas of what is just, it is not always justice. Yet dawn is hours before we knew Somehow we do it. Somehow we have weathered and seen a nation that is not broken, but simply incomplete. We, the successors of a country and a time when a skinny black girl, descended from slaves and raised by a single mother, can dream of becoming president just to recite for one. And yes, we are anything but polished, anything but flawless. But that does not mean that we are trying to create a perfect union. We strive to forge our union on purpose and create a country that is indebted to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man. And so we do not raise our eyes to what stands between us, but to what stands in front of us. We are closing the gap because we know our future comes first. We must first put our differences aside. We put our arms down so we can stretch out our arms one by one. We seek harm for no one and harmony for all. If nothing else, let the globe say this is true. Even as we mourned, we grew. That even when we hurt, we hoped we would get tired. we tried that will be bound together victorious forever. Not because we will never experience defeat again, but because we will never again sow division. Scripture tells us to imagine that everyone should sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one should fear them. If we are to live up to our own time, victory is not in the blade. But in all of the bridges we’ve made That is the promise of the clearing, the hill we climb. If only we would dare. Because being American is more than a pride we inherit. It is the past that we step into and how we fix it. We saw a force that would destroy our nation instead of dividing it. Would destroy our country if it delayed democracy. And these efforts were almost successful. Although democracy can be delayed periodically, it can never be permanently defeated. We trust in this truth, in this belief. While we keep our eyes on the future, our history has its eyes fixed on us. This is the era of righteous redemption. We feared it from the start. We did not feel ready to inherit such a terrible hour. But in it we found the strength to write a new chapter to offer ourselves hope and laughter. While we once asked how we could possibly prevail against a disaster, we now claim how a disaster could possibly prevail against us. We will not march back to what was, but to what will be, a land that is injured but whole. Benevolent but courageous, wild and free. We are not turned around or interrupted by intimidation, knowing that our inaction and indolence will be the legacy of the next generation. Our mistakes become their burden. One thing is certain, however. When we combine mercy with power and power with rights, love becomes our legacy and changes our children’s birthright. So let’s leave behind a country that is better than what is left to us. Every breath, my bronze breast. We will turn this wounded world into a wondrous one. We will rise from the gold-ridden hills of the west. We will rise from the windswept northeast, where our ancestors first realized the revolution. We will rise from the lakeside cities of the Midwestern states. We will rise from the sun-drenched south. We will rebuild, reconcile and restore in every known corner of our nation, in every corner called our land. Our diverse and beautiful people are beaten and come out beautiful. When the day comes, we step out of the shadow of the flame and are not afraid. The new dawn blooms as we free her. Because there was always light. If only we were brave enough to see it. If only we were brave enough to be.