.jpg)
Amanda
Gorman,
now just 25 years old, has staked her claim as the voice and conscience
of her generation. The former
national Youth Poet Lauriat and wonder kinder burst onto the
stage in her bright yellow dress reading a poem for Joe Bidens
inauguration. She has since produced
new poetry collections and children’s books as well as making her
mark as a fashion icon.
Her verse is
unabashedly topical and frequently hopeful even when confronting uncomfortable
issues like racism. But even
she was driven to near despair after the Uvalde School shooting in
Texas where nineteen students and two teachers were executed
while seventeen others were injured but survived.
Just days after
another murderous gun rampage at Covenant School in Nashville her
haunting words have renewed meaning.
Everything
Hurts
“Everything hurts,
Our hearts shadowed and strange,
Minds made muddied and mute.
We carry tragedy, terrifying and true.
And yet none of it is new;
We knew it as home,
As horror,
As heritage.
Even our children
Cannot be children,
Cannot be.
Everything hurts.
It’s a hard time to be alive,
And even harder to stay that way.
We’re burdened to live out these days,
While at the same time, blessed to outlive them.
This alarm is how we know
We must be altered —
That we must differ or die,
That we must triumph or try.
Thus while hate cannot be terminated,
It can be transformed
Into a love that lets us live.
May we not just grieve, but give:
May we not just ache, but act;
May our signed right to bear arms
Never blind our sight from shared harm;
May we choose our children over chaos.
May another innocent never be lost.
Maybe everything hurts,
Our hearts shadowed & strange.
But only when everything hurts
May everything change.”
—Amanda Gorman
No comments:
Post a Comment