Amanda Gorman

I’m German. I’ve never watched an inauguration of an American president. The one of today’s President Joe Biden was no exception even though I was hoping for something better than what had come before… ("It seems to me that I have been dreaming a horrid dream for four years, and now the nightmare is gone.”)

Amanda Gorman’s amazing poem hit the German news very quickly, though, and I got curious and looked it up, watched Gorman perform it at the inauguration. It hit me unexpectedly show more hard; so hard, in fact, I cried.

Her presentation was so powerful, emotional, touching and uplifting; representative - to me - of all that is right and just about the United States.

Gorman envisions a country “committed To all cultures, colors, characters, And conditions of man” and while, of course, she primarily addresses the USA, she also spoke to the world and of the world.

If we, the peoples of the world, made into reality in our countries what Gorman wishes for her own one, if we truly and honestly, sought “harm to none, and harmony for all” - regardless of gender, skin colour, sexual orientation, etc. - then, yes, then “We will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one.”

Today, I was finally able to read the poem in its own ebook while simultaneously watching Gorman’s recitation which lent the experience further depth. Try for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz4YuEvJ3y4


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A beautiful poem written for Joe Biden’s inauguration, Ms. Gorman’s “The Hill We Climb” rightly describes the United States as a country, not striving for perfection, but working toward improvement. While the overarching theme is hope, Ms. Gorman does not whitewash the reality of the social and political divide, the divisiveness and hatred and violence that has risen and thrived in this dark period of our country. It's an anthem meant to be read aloud, with its dynamic cadence, show more rhymes, and rhythms . I read it through once silently, but found something transformative in reading it aloud the second time. show less

This is a diverse and quite large collection of poems, but all of them are powerful. The main topic is the covid-19 pandemic, and Amanda Gorman writes about how it felt - the shock, the loneliness, the distance, the fear. She connects it to the 1918 flu, and also to the experiences of Black Americans, both in history and in the year 2020.
The author's style is incredibly poignant and sharp, her way with words is often surprising, but never feels forced. She also plays with form, for example, show more there are erasure poems using historical letters and documents, as well as visual poetry and one poem resembles a game of hangman.
It was not possible for me to read more than two poems in a row because there was so much to ponder and the words left such a strong impression.
Despite all the despair and sadness, a deep strength runs through these poems, and I am glad that I persisted despite the difficult topic. show less

I distinctly remember being blown away by the author's recital during the inauguration, and I watched it on YouTube today before reading the poem slowly to appreciate it in a different way. Even if the world on the whole seems to have changed for the worse and not for the better since then, to me the poem is still perfect, both in its form and language and in its message. Reading it slowly in a book made me appreciate the rhythm, the alliterations and the word play even more.

As for the show more message, I want to quote the ending of the poem:

For there is always light,
If only we are brave enough to see it,
If only we are brave enough to be it.

This resonates with me even more today than three years ago. show less