01/23/2021
T O A M A N D A G O R M A N
We watched you,
a young black beautiful skinny woman,
deliver a perfectly stirring recitation
of your words, your take on the world
that did not pull one punch,
and you told us forcefully
to hope, to work, to believe,
while steeping ourselves
in the pains of the past.
You had age and truth beyond your years.
And grace like a rough wind
through trees at earliest dawn,
rattling the leaves just right.
That’s the America I know and remember.
That’s the America I believe in.
That’s the America that is not gone,
has not shrunk, and has only grown fuller
and deeper and stronger
While the last few years
have seen such withering from love,
such shrinking from respect,
culminating in disgrace and more lies,
a January Sixth Insurrection —
Oh yes, we will let that burning
burn away in the past.
Yet we will always remember.
Amanda Gorman, I knew nothing
about how much we needed you
at that time and that place,
on those steps.
And then, in a flash, in my soul, I knew.
In a new moment of light, millions knew.
You have our love.
