Poet Amanda Gorman ended 2021 with a new poem shared on Instagram, painting an optimistic forecast for the upcoming year.
The video shows Gorman reciting the five stanza, 48 lines long, reflective poem, elaborating the dismay, knowledge, and sorrow.
“May this be the day/ We come together/ Mourning, we come to mend/ Withered, we come to weather/ Torn, we come to tend/ Battered, we come to better/ Tethered by this year of yearning,” Gorman writes. “We are learning/ That though we weren’t ready for this/ We have been readied by it/ We steadily vow that no matter/ How we are weighed down/ We must always pave a way forward.”
Read the full poem below.
Gorman made history with her reading of “The Hill We Climb” at the inauguration on Jan. 20. The 23-year-old has had three number-one bestsellers in 11 months, a modeling contract and delivered the Super Bowl’s first-ever pre-game poem honoring team captains for Super Bowl LV.
“There’s so much that keeps me going. I think if I were to sum it up in one word, it wouldn’t even necessarily be hope. I think it would be love, which I persist [with] even when times seem hopeless and helpless. And it’s love, for example, for my family, love for my craft, love for the future, love for my country, love for change, and possibilities,’ she told Vanity Fair after her poem was shared on social media.
“And so, I think the more that I ground my actions in this basis of caring, both for myself and others, the more strengthened and emboldened I feel to continue my work, because it’s not, let’s say, structured around something which is fragile, which I think is perfectionism, or fame, or money, or success. It’s grounded in something that is perennial and long-lasting, which is love.”
