American poet Amanda Gorman reads a poem during the 59th Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, Pool)

A Hill to Climb, in full : https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/20/amanda-gorman-poem-biden-inauguration-transcript

Beauty will save the world.

Line by line you can read it with your ears and hear it in the lilt of Amanda Gorman’s voice.

There is a hill to climb.

It is not for storming. It is not for rising as a mob to rally to a lie stoked in fear and the threat of imagined loss.

Beauty will save the world …

“… If we merge mercy with might and might with right, then love becomes our legacy and change our children’s birthright.”

The harsh tones of winning won on the backs of others’ losing is put aside and the voice of the poet stills the noise and dispels the rage.

Can a poet philosopher really rule?

Can we a people, really rise by lifting others? Can this become our dangerous idea?

(How we have missed the poet!)

There is a hill to climb.

But we must be brave enough to be it.