The Hill We Climb by Amanda Gorman

The Hill We Climb

by: 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.

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.

And 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 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 gold-limbed 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.

And every known nook of our nation and

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.

First, let me just say that I love Amanda Gorman as a person, as a poet, and as a voice for our country.  She is inspiring.  I got to see her for the first time reading on CBS This Morning for the Fourth of July, I think, and she reminded me of how important it is to read poetry out loud.  That poem was called "Believer's Hymn for the Republic."  As I listened to those words and watched the news in mid-July of 2019, I felt her passion and her love for words; so, when I heard she was delivering a poem for Joe Biden's inauguration, I knew it was going to be something amazing.

As I read the title of the poem now, I wonder if it is in some way Sisyphean--if it was meant to evoke a task that is never completed, or if, instead, it was meant to remind us of that phrase by John Winthrop, "a city on a hill."  Or does it refer to the spot upon which our Congressional building was built, known as The Hill.

Fourteen days before the moment when this poem was recited, that very same hill was stormed by supporters of a coup.  And while they didn't succeed, and while the business of our government was only briefly halted (congresspersons returned to the Capitol that very evening to ensure that the coup was seen, not as a success, but as a failure,) fourteen days later, we came together to inaugurate our democratically elected 46th president of the United States.

But those fourteen days felt longer, somehow.  They felt cold and dark--the constant worry that our government could be attacked again hanging on the very breath that started each morning.  We wondered if there would be another revolution, and we worried about the lines that would be drawn within our own families if it were.

So when Amanda Gorman spoke these words, they weren't just an inauguration poem; they were the heart and soul of a nation longing to wake up from those two benighted weeks of fear.  And while that lends added weight to them, this poem, at its heart, is about the hope that America represents.

I don't think I could enumerate my favorite lines from this poem, because each time I read it, or hear it, something new catches my eye or ear.  The way her words flow, and the way she plays with the sounds of words to create those play-on-words in the poem are, in my mind, a culmination of voices that have influenced Amanda Gorman.  There are roots in her words that stretch back in time--black voices that sing out in the rhythms and cadences we can hear and see in the poem.  In a way, I feel like every black poet I have mentioned this month (and so many others that I haven't,) have been a part of creating this poem.  And I suppose, most of all, that is what I love most about poetry; it builds upon itself.  One poem creates another in the hearts and minds of those who read it--each of us taking away a meaning from it which is completely our own.  And then those of us who create art take those meanings and make something new from them--the hills we climb, the lights we become.

For many of us in America, this poem is a rekindling of our faith in the hope and promise that America represents both to us and to the world.  It is a powerful reminder that our task is not finished, and that there are still promises to keep before we're done.  But it is also a celebration of the idea that our voices matter--that the idea of democracy still exists and still persists here in America.  "The Hill We Climb" is our hope for the future, and Amanda Gorman will forever be a symbol of that for me.

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If you get a chance, I highly recommend watching this video with Trevor Noah and Amanda Gorman from The Daily Social Distancing Show of January 27th--a week after this moment.  Amanda is so poised and speaks so eloquently that I am incredibly jealous of how well she expresses herself.  But it also gives some insight into her character which I think is worth knowing and seeing.