Call Us What We Carry

This collection of poems from 23-year-old Amanda Gorman, the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history (the book was originally titled The Hill We Climb and Other Poems) includes the poem she so beautifully presented for President Biden’s inauguration.

The title, Call Us What We Carry, comes from a line in the inaugural poem, The Hill We Climb, which reads: "When day comes we ask ourselves,/ where can we find light in this never-ending shade?/ The loss we carry,/ a sea we must wade." Her poems put words to the feelings of grief experienced by a nation in mourning over the loss of lives from George Floyd and others like him, lost to injustice and brutality, as well as the casualties of a global pandemic. Yet always, Gorman offers the hope and possibility of a new day dawning: "Somehow we've weathered and witnessed/ a nation that isn't broken,/ but simply unfinished." Amanda Gorman's name has become synonymous with a new generation building a better America.

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