Amanda Gorman Quotes

Our goal is never revenge, just restoration. Not dominance, just dignity. Not fear, just freedom. Just justice.

Of all the stars the most beautiful
Is nothing more than a monster,
Just as starved & stranded as we are.

Last year we stepped onto an elevator. We politely asked the white lady behind us If she could please take the next lift To continue social distancing. Her face flared up like a cross in the night. Are you kidding me? she yelled, Like we’d just declared Elevators for us only Or Yous must enter from the back Or No yous or dogs allowed Or We have the right to refuse Humanity to anyone.

Poetry is an art form, but, to me, it’s also a weapon, it’s also an instrument. It’s the ability to make ideas that have been known, felt and said.” Inaugural poet
@TheAmandaGorman

Somehow we've weathered and witnessed
a nation that isn't broken
but simply unfinished. . .
And yes we are far from polished
far from pristine
but that doesn't mean we are
striving to form a union that is perfect
We are striving to forge a union with purpose

To be kept to the edges of existence is the inheritance of the marginalized.

The truth is, we are one nation, under fraud.
Tell us, honestly:
Will we ever be who we say.

We will rebuild, reconcile and recover in every known nook of our nation, in every corner called our country our people diverse and beautiful will emerge battered and beautiful. When day comes, we step out of the shade aflame and unafraid. The new dawn blooms as we free it. For there is always light. If only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.

Welcome back to the wild (advertisement for a zoo)
Watch movies like they were meant to be seen (advertisement for a movie theater)

Perhaps to burn is the most basic
Purification there is.
Time said: You must transform to survive.
We said: Not over our dead body.
What can we call a country that destroys
Itself just because it can?
A nation that would char
Rather than change?
Our only word for this is
Home.

Lost as we feel, there is no better
Compass than compassion
We find ourselves not by being
The most seen, but the most seeing.

Our wounds, too, are our windows
Through them we watch the world

We don’t need a gown.
We don’t need a stage.
We are walking beside our ancestors,
Their drums roar for us,
Their feet stomp at our life.
There is power in being robbed
& still choosing to dance.

Again, language matters.
Children have been taught-
America: without her, democracy fails.
But the truth is:
America without her democracy fails.

In 1863, deep in the Civil War's magnitude, Abraham Lincoln declared a day of gratitude Shared by one heart and one voice of America. A proclamation for a nation in a nightmare, This Thanksgiving dared Americans To chime their thanks at a time when many believed They had no thanks to give.