In an interview with Michelle Obama, Amanda Gorman says that for the last six years, she has been challenging herself to write what she called the “Inauguration poem” that is “worthy of a new chapter in the country.” Her goal was to be “brave enough to be hopeful.” Wow! I am fascinated by this young poet’s determination to cajole and celebrate a nation. Dr. Jill Biden selected Gorman to read at the Inauguration after reading the poem “In This Place,” about a poet who “rewrites this nation, who tells a story . . . to breathe hope into a palimpsest of time . . .”
Gorman, Amanda. ““The Shallows.” Call Us What We Carry. Viking, 2021, p. 24.