I transcribed the poem that VA Tech professor Nikki Giovanni recited at the memorial service today - it's in video feed on all the major news sites (I watched it at CNN.com). I couldn't find an online text of it yet, so here it is:


We are Virginia Tech
We are sad today
And we will be sad for quite a while
We are NOT moving on
We are embracing our mourning
We are Virginia Tech
We are strong enough to stand tall tirelessly
We are brave enough to bend to cry, and sad enough to know
We must laugh again
We are Virginia Tech
We do not understand this tragedy
We know we did nothing deserve it
But neither does the child in Africa, dying of AIDS
Neither do the invisible children, walking the night away to avoid being captured by rogue army
Neither does the baby elephant, watching his community be devastated for ivory
Neither does the Mexican child looking for fresh water
Neither does the Appalachian child, killed in his own crib, in the home his father built with his own hands, being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized
No one deserves a tragedy
We are Virginia Tech
The Hokie nation embraces our own and reaches out with open heart and hands to those that offer their hearts and minds
We are strong and brave and innocent and unafraid,
We are better than we think and not quite what we want to be
We are live to the imagination
And the possibility we will continue to invent the future
Through our blood and tears
Through all this sadness
We are the Hokies
We will prevail
We will prevail
We will prevail
WE ARE
VIRGINIA TECH

This poem was amazing.....she did a good job of getting everyone together by her words alone.

That was a truly moving poem and will be remembered forever more. Thank you for posting that, I was looking for it before.

It was an amazing poem, and really well delivered.
I don't think I personally could have recited that in front of everyone without breaking down in tears.

I'm a quick typer so I just wrote it up dictation style, I hope I got all the wording right, I listened to it a few times to be sure!

I'm a transcriptionist (part time job), and I just corrected a few inconsistencies in the transcription... here is the corrected version:

We are Virginia Tech
We are sad today
And we will be sad for quite a while
We are NOT moving on
We are embracing our mourning
We are Virginia Tech
We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly
We are brave enough to bend to cry, and sad enough to know
We must laugh again
We are Virginia Tech
We do not understand this tragedy
We know we did nothing to deserve it
But neither does the child in Africa, dying of AIDS
Neither do the Invisible Children, walking the night away to avoid being captured by a rogue army
Neither does the baby elephant, watching his community be devastated for ivory
Neither does the Mexican child looking for fresh water
Neither does the Appalachian infant, killed in the middle of the night in his crib, in the home his father built with his own hands, being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized
No one deserves a tragedy
We are Virginia Tech
The Hokie Nation embraces our own and reaches out with open heart and hand to those who offer their hearts and minds
We are strong and brave and innocent and unafraid
We are better than we think and not quite what we want to be
We are alive to the imagination and the possibility we will continue to invent the future
Through our blood and tears
Through all this sadness
We are the Hokies
We will prevail
We will prevail
We will prevail
WE ARE
VIRGINIA TECH

I found a few errors and I corrected them.. you did all the hard work though :)

This was a really very good ... she delivered it so strong!

Thank you for posting this poem. A lot of my fellow Hokies have portions of it in their AIM profiles and as their away message, and I know that these words will resonate with the entire Virginia Tech community for a very long time. At an unbelievably difficult time like this, when many of us are simply at a loss for words, we are able to begin the process of finding our voices again through Professor Giovanni's poem.

beautiful