Amanda Gorman Inspires

On January 20, 2021, Amanda Gorman recited her poem “The Hill We Climb” at the inauguration of President Joe Biden. Ms. Gorman, a resident and youth poet laureate of Los Angeles, and a Harvard graduate, is the youngest inaugural poet, only 22 years of age. She is also the nation’s first ever youth poet laureate. She is one of only six inaugural poets, and is in some fine company, to say the least. The first poet to read at a Presidential inauguration was Robert Frost in 1961, followed by Maya Angelou in 1993, Miller Williams in 1997, Elizabeth Alexander in 2009, Richard Blanco in 2013, and of course, Amanda Gorman in 2021. Her poem was written to call for “unity and collaboration and togetherness.”

The theme of the inauguration was “America United”. Ironically, on January 6, 2021, Amanda Gorman was halfway through writing her poem when Pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol Building. She finished her poem that night and made reference to the events of the attack and to previous years of injustice.

Gorman wore a ring of a caged bird, which was a gift from Oprah Winfrey, symbolizing another inaugural poet, Maya Angelou. Gorman also asked two previous inaugural poets, Elizabeth Alexander and Richard Blanco for advice before her reading. Blanco said “it’s just not one of us up there, it’s a representation of American poetry.”

Gorman is an author of an upcoming children’s book and has plans to run for President herself in 2036, when she is eligible.

The following is one of my original poems that Amanda Gorman has inspired me to write:

A youthful inaugural poet, of the six a

Mere twenty-two. The other five we shan’t obscure from

America’s view. Frost first to the podium

Next was Angelou

Decorum from Williams

Alexander’s wooden spoons would do to

Give way to Blanco and his

One Today, for the one we celebrate today, in every way

Resident of L.A., the most Angelic City

Mother a teacher of

America’s youth from streets so gritty

National Youth Poet Laureate

Investing in thoughts our

Nation won’t soon forget

Alumna of Harvard

University of the mind

Grandiose visions

Unfurl, unwind, too kind

Reap what has been sown

Auditory processing disorder shown to help

Learn the words she’ll hone

Preferring to defer the letter R

Offering substitutions that are

Exquisite, unexpected, yet still heartfelt

Taking her to DC

Yet before she made history, senses heightened

Outcries from the steps of the Capitol

Unrest, unjust, people frightened

The theme for Joe to grab it all was America United

Harmony not found, those

People rioted

On the steps, through the door

Entered the angered

The hill they climbed

Left us shattered, cankered

Amanda, speak to US

Unite us with words

Ready to combat hate

Erase the disturbances

Asked to dance with haste

The racial injustices hopefully

Eradicated eventually

The caged bird freed, to

Heaven it soars

Erasing hatred and oppression from

Here to the shores

I am sure

Love conquers all

Lament our ways of the past

White, black, red, or brown

Enjoy this time, for we are together here, free at last?

Celebrate the solitude of being together

Like that caged bird’s feather

Insurmountable odds

Mourning for what seems like forever

Brothers and sisters unite

Some sing, some pray, some fight

Outlook may not seem so bright

Suspects, perpetrators, dark in the night

Under a boot heel or knee, some lost their fight, their right

Before God and his Eternal

Light the way

Is clear, to relinquish fear

Many would say America is for

Ever broken, and we are just tokens, but

Hear me now and hear me clear

Every last one of us can be tokens of affection, despite the tears

Restart, reset, a new direction, her future election

My country is not broken, it is unfinished

On my mission to augment the diminished

My business it will be

Ending only when finished

Never tiring, words firing

To unite rather than divide

Intervene to make whole all sides

Nurture the truth,

Time to incorporate all

Include all

Make all

Everyone whole again and

Believe again, from our

Elders to our youth

Lift us up

Lift us up

So high in the sky

On our way to realize our dreams

Free in every sense, in all its means, no longer demean

Die for this dream, fight for this dream

Everyone with a fist held high, it would seem

Make

Our

Country

Rate again, great again, love again, amen

America again, amen

Can we? Can you? She can...

Your name, my dear Amanda,

Can’t and won’t

Hide. Your titles and dreams reside

Inside these lines, can you find

My mystery? Start from the top of this poem and read down

Every first letter, our story gets better, thanks to her renown.