Amanda Gorman assures America “There is always a light.”
“There is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it” Amanda Gorman.
WASHINGTON- Wednesday, January 20th the Inauguration of Joseph R. Biden Jr. took place at the Capitol. Inaugural poet Amanda Gorman delivered her poem “The Hill We Climb” That would encourage Americans to unite.
According to New York Times “At 22, Gorman is the youngest inaugural poet ever in the United States. She set out to write a poem that would inspire hope and foster a sense of collective purpose, at a moment when Americans are reeling from a deadly pandemic, political violence and partisan division.”
The task of writing this poem was challenging as you could imagine. “I had this huge thing, probably one of the most important things I’ll ever do in my career,” Gorman said in an interview. “It was like, if I try to climb this mountain all at once, I’m just going to pass out.”
“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. 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,” she said. “It’s doing that in a way that is not erasing or neglecting the harsh truths I think America needs to reconcile with.”
As we remember the riot that occurred a few weeks prior to the inauguration, on the very same steps Gorman would deliver her speech. We find hope and reassurance as Gorman writes
“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”
In her cry for healing we must remember to be brave enough to see it, and brave enough to be it.
Sources:
Alter, Alexandra. 2021. “Amanda Gorman Captures The Moment, In Verse”. Nytimes.Com. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/books/amanda-gorman-inauguration-hill-we-climb.html.
“READ: Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman’s Inaugural Poem”. 2021. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/20/politics/amanda-gorman-inaugural-poem-transcript/index.html.