An excerpt from: On The Pulse Of The Morning

Lift up your faces, you have a piercing need
For this bright morning dawning for you.

History despite its wrenching pain,
Cannot be unlived, but if faced
With courage, need not be lived again.

Lift up your eyes
Upon this day breaking for you
Give birth again
To the dream.

Women, children, men
Take it into the palms of your hands,
Mold it into the shape of your most
Private need. Sculpt it into
The image of your most public self.
Lift up your hearts
Each new hour holds new chances
For a new beginning.
Do not be wedded forever
To fear, yoked eternally
To brutishness.

Written by
Maya Angelou
Read at the Inauguration of
William Jefferson Clinton
January 20, 1993