De berg die we beklimmen

– Amanda Gorman

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.

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, 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 should make them afraid.
If we’re to live up to our own time,
then victory won’t lie in the blade,
but in in all of the bridges we’ve made.

That is the promise to glade,
the hill we climb 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.
We’ve seen a force that would shatter
our nation rather than share it.
That would destroy our country
if it meant delaying democracy,
and this effort very nearly succeeded.
But while democracy can periodically be 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 in 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 can 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 burden.
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 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
in every known nook of our nation
in every corner called our country
our people diverse and beautiful
will emerge battered and beautiful,
when the 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.