Amanda Gorman Quotes

Since the world is round,
There is no way to walk away
From each other, for even then
We are coming back together.

We've never had to hate a human
To hug another, never had to be fearful
To be fond of the hearts beating out to us.

The same sapiens, we flooded our streets Demanding answers & change. To love is to be liable To ourselves & each other.

The closest we get to time travel Is our fears softening,

Allegedly the worst is behind us.
Still, we crouch before the lip of tomorrow

& what we share is the bark, the bones. Paleontologists, from one fossilized femur, Can dream up a species, Make believe a body Where there was none. Our remnants are revelation, Our requiem as raptus. When we bend into dirt We’re truth preserved Without our skin.

We destroy everything good just so it will not shame us. How easy it is to both leave & love this place.

We mourn the past More than we miss it. We revere the regular more Than we remember it honestly. Don’t we recognize All the ways Normal can S p utt e r & Die.

The truth is, we are one nation, under fraud.

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

Perhaps pain is like a name,
Made to sing just for you.

Writing, truth-telling to one another, is an act of hope-making when hope is hardest found. What place have we in our histories except the present.

Jan 6: Trump supporters storm the US Capitol, leading to the deaths of five people. Somewhere a poet writes in moonless light & all at once puts her pen down.

What are we, if not what we see in another.

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