anary
C
BY RITA DOVE
for Michael S. Harper
illie Holiday’s burned voice
B
had as many shadows as lights,
a mournful candelabra against a sleek piano,
the gardenia her signature under that ruined face.
( Now you’re cooking, drummer to bass,
magic spoon, magic needle.
Take all day if you have to
with your mirror and your bracelet of song.)
act is, the invention of women under siege
F
has been to sharpen love in the service of myth.
If you can’t be free, be a mystery.
aged Bird
C so he opens his throat to sing.
BY MAYA ANGELOU
A free bird leaps he caged bird sings
T
on the back of the wind with a fearful trill
and floats downstream of things unknown
till the current ends but longed for still
and dips his wing and his tune is heard
in the orange sun rays on the distant hill
and dares to claim the sky. for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
ut a bird that stalks
B
down his narrow cage I , Too
can seldom see through BY LANGSTON HUGHES
his bars of rage I, too, sing America.
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied I am the darker brother.
so he opens his throat to sing. They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
he caged bird sings
T But I laugh,
with a fearful trill And eat well,
of things unknown And grow strong.
but longed for still
and his tune is heard omorrow,
T
on the distant hill I’ll be at the table
for the caged bird When company comes.
sings of freedom. Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
he free bird thinks of another breeze
T “Eat in the kitchen,”
and the trade winds soft through the sighing Then.
trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn esides,
B
and he names the sky his own. They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—
ut a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
B
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream I, too, am America.
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
he Hill We Climb
T
BY AMANDA GORMAN
hen day comes we ask ourselves,
W that even as we grieved, we grew,
where can we find light in this never-ending that even as we hurt, we hoped,
shade? that even as we tired, we tried,
The loss we carry, that we'll forever be tied together, victorious.
a sea we must wade. Not because we will never again know defeat,
We've braved the belly of the beast, but because we will never again sow division.
We've learned that quiet isn't always peace, Scripture tells us to envision
and the norms and notions that everyone shall sit under their own vine and
of what just is fig tree
isn't always just-ice. and no one shall make them afraid.
And yet the dawn is ours If we're to live up to our own time,
before we knew it. then victory won't lie in the blade.
Somehow we do it. But in all the bridges we've made,
Somehow we've weathered and witnessed that is the promise to glade,
a nation that isn't broken, the hill we climb.
but simply unfinished. If only we dare.
We the successors of a country and a time It's because being American is more than a pride
where a skinny Black girl we inherit,
descended from slaves and raised by a single it's the past we step into
mother and how we repair it.
can dream of becoming president We've seen a force that would shatter our nation
only to find herself reciting for one. rather than share it.
And yes we are far from polished. Would destroy our country if it meant delaying
Far from pristine. democracy.
But that doesn't mean we are And this effort very nearly succeeded.
striving to form a union that is perfect. But while democracy can be periodically
We are striving to forge a union with purpose, delayed,
to compose a country committed to all cultures, it can never be permanently defeated.
colors, characters and In this truth,
conditions of man. in this faith we trust.
And so we lift our gazes not to what stands For while we have our eyes on the future,
between us, history has its eyes on us.
but what stands before us. This is the era of just redemption
We close the divide because we know, to put our we feared at its inception.
future first, We did not feel prepared to be the heirs
we must first put our differences aside. of such a terrifying hour
We lay down our arms but within it we found the power
so we can reach out our arms to author a new chapter.
to one another. To offer hope and laughter to ourselves.
We seek harm to none and harmony for all. So while once we asked,
Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true, how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe?
ow we assert,
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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.
