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. 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 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’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 justice. 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. That is one of two book projects currently in the works for the young poet. That book, aimed particularly at teenage and young adult readers, will contain today’s inauguration poem. This September, Viking Books is set to publish Gorman’s first poetry collection. Maya Angelou, Robert Frost, Miller Williams, Elizabeth Alexander, and Richard Blanco, have filled the role before Gorman. Poets have appeared at the inaugurations of just four U.S. “The theme for the inauguration in its entirety is ‘America United,’ so when I heard that was their vision, that made it very easy for me to say, great, that’s also what I wanted to write about in my poem, about America united, about a new chapter in our country,” told the Times. “There is space for grief and horror and hope and unity, and I also hope that there is a breath for joy in the poem, because I do think we have a lot to celebrate at this inauguration.” While she had never previously met with anyone from the incoming president’s team, now-First Lady Jill Biden recalled seeing a reading Gorman had delivered at the Library of Congress, and suggested her for the ceremony. She was contacted in late December about appearing at the Inauguration. At 19, while in college at Harvard, she was named the first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate. Now 22-years-old, West L.A.-raised Gorman was named Youth Poet Laureate of Los Angeles at the age of 16. “It’s doing that in a way that is not erasing or neglecting the harsh truths I think America needs to reconcile with.”

But what I really aspire to do in the poem is to be able to use my words to envision a way in which our country can still come together and can still heal,” Gorman told The New York Times. “In my poem, I’m not going to in any way gloss over what we’ve seen over the past few weeks and, dare I say, the past few years.

Titled “The Hill We Climb,” the piece was written specifically for the occasion. Poet Amanda Gorman delivered an inauguration poem from the steps of the United States Capitol which powerfully captured the national mood.

Amanda gorman the hill we climb