Amanda Gorman Sees a Momentous New Year Ahead
For the new year, posthumous African American Poet-Laurette, Amanda Gorman posted a new spoken word poem titled “New Day’s Lyric” to her Instagram account, welcoming the United State into the new year. She can be followed and admired as @amandasgorman. Ms. Gorman first came to America’s attention in 2019 after reciting her now infamous poem, “The Hill We Climb.” The now, 25-year-old artist recalls her experience on the inauguration platform.
The Los Angeles native and Harvard University alum, she became the nation’s first youth poet-Laurette back in 2017. After performing and filling the country with hope for over five minutes on the national stage and ushering in a new administration, Gorman was able to highlight the struggles we have moving forward, the dark parts of our countries history and outline a vision for a more unified future. Her poem, “A New Day’s Lyric,” strikes similar tones by remembering the battles of the past as well as presenting positive visions of the future. The poem reads:
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,
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.
This hope is our door, our portal.
Even if we never get back to normal,
Someday we can venture beyond it,
To leave the known and take the first steps.
So let us not return to what was normal,
But reach toward what is next.
What was cursed, we will cure.
What was plagued, we will prove pure.
Where we tend to argue, we will try to agree,
Those fortunes we forswore, now the future we foresee,
Where we weren't aware, we're now awake;
Those moments we missed
Are now these moments we make,
The moments we meet,
And our hearts, once all together beaten,
Now all together beat.
Come, look up with kindness yet,
For even solace can be sourced from sorrow.
We remember, not just for the sake of yesterday,
But to take on tomorrow.
We heed this old spirit,
In a new day's lyric,
In our hearts, we hear it:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne.
Be bold, sang Time this year,
Be bold, sang Time,
For when you honor yesterday,
Tomorrow ye will find.
Know what we've fought
Need not be forgotten nor for none.
It defines us, binds us as one,
Come over, join this day just begun.
For wherever we come together,
We will forever overcome.
Gorman's "New Day's Lyric" poem was performed by Gorman, professionally filmed in the middle of a large theater in spoken word cadences. The written poem and the video was posted on Instagram’s official home page to encourage their users to welcome in the new year with hope. Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes can be quoted as saying, “An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose.” His Gorman’s creativity and tenacity with her writing seems to reflex Hughes outlook on the life of an artist.
On her journey to reaching new heights, Amanda Gorman has already Gorman also published a collection of her poetry called, Call Us What We Carry in December of 2021. As of 2022, she is already of track to publish a children’s poetry book called, Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem, which will be filled with illustrations. Some other books that she will publish this year will also include a special commemorative print edition of “The Hill We Climb.” According to her bio, she is also the recipient of the Poets & Writers Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award, and is the youngest board member of 826 National, the largest youth writing network in the United States. She also gave a TED Talk titled, “Using You Voice is a Political Choice.” For Amanda Gorman, her art is personal, and the personal is political.
