Poem

Suzan Shown Harjo
categories: Poem, Speeches
Welcoming Home Living Beings - Aug. 14, 2020
August 14, 2020
"Welcoming Home Living Beings” by Suzan Shown Harjo. Today, we welcome home beloved Living Beings No one alive today has seen them at home, except in dreams No one we ever met saw them at home, except in dreams Yesterday, they were stolen, many generations ago Yesterday, they were prisoners in private houses Yesterday, they were locked in university basements Yesterday, they were poisoned and smothered in museums Yesterday, they were branded with numbers and price tags Yesterday, they were violated by prying hands and eyes Yesterday, they were tortured […]
Elizabeth Alexander
categories: Inaugural Address, Poem, Speeches
Praise Song for the Day - Jan. 20, 2009
January 20, 2009
Each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each other’s eyes or not, about to speak or speaking. All about us is noise. All about us is noise and bramble, thorn and din, each one of our ancestors on our tongues. Someone is stitching up a hem, darning a hole in a uniform, patching a tire, repairing the things in need of repair. Someone is trying to make music somewhere, with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum, with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice. […]
Amanda Gorman
categories: Inaugural Address, Poem, Speeches
The Hill We Climb - Jan. 20, 2021
January 20, 2021
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 […]