Amanda Gorman's Inaugural Poem

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 promised 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

You are good!

photo source: anon

You are good, just as you are in this moment.
Don’t be afraid to claim the beauty you feel in yourself right now.
Strengthen your body in the way that suits you.
Stay flexible physically & emotionally.
Breathe into your essence.
Love yourself and those who love you back.
And know— you are right where you need to be.

Tricia

I Choose To Find My Own Way Home

I could have found my own way home. Instead I chose to follow those who have no sense of love at all. No sense of respect, so laden down are they with their pretty images of self. They who find life a competition to be won, a game to be played, rather than a love to be shared or support to be offered. Indeed, I found myself once again in a divinely granted situation (aren’t they all my dear?) dropped into a hopeful situation filled with options and potential. “Sit, nourish yourself” I heard the choir singing— “Sink into your wholeness.” I instead clung to the oh so familiar— the who do you think you are?!— the cowering at the idea of self-empowerment— the how dare you?!— so easy are they. Anything but deciding— Who Am I? Anything but I Am…

Another piece of gold laid at my feet, I wandered away like a good little 60 year old girl, feeling the sweet familiarity of depletion. I was abandoned once again. By myself.

I awaken with a shifted perspective, the stubborn pattern of self sabotage, so brutally etched into, me falling away— an avalanche of emotional debris cleared— the mountain of my individuality solid, uncluttered, shining in the rising sun. My root untangled I cast my sight into the dark blue inky color of vision- the color of the sweet unknown— the color of the limitless. I sense the, no longer fleeting, beauty of love granting me the sight to see into and through all that is.

In my waking hours, in the throes of clarity, crown lifting, root sinking in, heart open —
I choose to find my own way home.

Tricia 5 13 20 23— SEVEN

I Suppose-- A Poem of Gratitude

I suppose my voice has been with me since before my time on Earth.

And once I was conceived, guided the timing of my birth

For the perfect circumstances for that supreme succession,

Events bringing the lessons that could eliminate my obsessions.

I suppose that my parents were chosen specifically for me

The combining of their energies offering exactly what I’d need

To evolve into the adult that I have so uniquely become

To stand upon my mountain, beat my solitary drum.

 

I suppose when I leave the Earth there’ll be a certain sort of heartache

& my energetic influence will fly free to start the remake

Perhaps that voice will call, to remind me of what lives on

As I find an orbit, a new found sphere, another ocean to make waves upon.