I don’t read a great deal of poetry, but Gorman’s talent is astonishing.  I love her voice, her facility with language, her ability to use our history, current events, and her identity as a young black woman to craft poems that speak to the heart.  These poems were written during the pandemic, and the crisis infuses most of the poems.  The volume also includes the poem she recited at Biden’s inauguration in 2020, to great acclaim.  I know I will return to these poems again and again, and she will likely become an auto-buy author for me.  From my favorite poem “The Miracle of Morning”:  
….”While we might feel small, separate and all alone, 
Our people have never been more closely tethered.
The question isn’t IF we can weather this unknown, 
But HOW we will weather this unknown together.

So on this meaningful morn, we mourn & we mend.
Like light, we can’t be broken, even when we bend.”

Admittedly, I'm not really one for poetry, but this book didn't really land for me. It often felt like the author was trying to say something really profound, and I wasn't quite getting it. But by far my biggest complaint is the form factor. There were some really poor decisions made that made some of the poems really difficult to read, and others just didn't really feel like they worked well in a book of poetry; they were more suited to something like an art installation. 

A beautiful and timeless collection of poetry. All the references were well-researched, and the parallels to the past that Gorman speaks to are haunting. There were more than a few lines that resonated with me.

My rating is solely based on my enjoyment, not on the skill displayed. Now that I'm far removed from school, I think I've lost the ability to deeply analyze poetry. Anyway, my favorite portion was the erasure poems. They call to mind collage art or remixes, two art forms that are very dear to me. 

Powerful, moving, informative

This isn't just poetry, but a history lesson couched in moving words that will twist you in so many different ways it'll leave you feeling raw with emotions: hope, anger, joy, sorrow. The way Amanda Gorman intertwines the experience of the Covid Pandemic with what has come before is powerful. I learned things I never knew: like how elements of history don't exist in a bubble, but instead are bonded with others. The most shocking was that of refugees desperate to escape the Jim Crow south, WW1, and the Spanish Flu. We are always blaming the innocent for what they did not do, and it is always fueled by hate. Do we never learn?

I can see ways the world has learned, though often it feels like for every step forward these days, we take two steps back. It feels like we're just repeating the past especially right now with all this injustice allowed to be committed by cops/white supremacist groups/nazis/other hate groups, puritanical charades about protecting the children that are misinformation, book banning, and hate -  against Drag Queens, against Trans people, against Immigrants/Migrants/Refugees. I think if ever there was an important time for this book to be read and taught? It's now.

There's definitely a lot to unpack in her words, especially about how even in despair, there's still joy to be found. I suppose there's a great deal to be said about the empowerment to be found as well. About not losing hope, about not giving up, about not being silent. So, even with everything above, losing hope and giving up would be terrible. I do hope that one day people will learn and more of us stand together than apart to continue enacting positive change for the future of the world and the generations to come. I didn't see it during the Covid Pandemic - people content to be selfish instead of staying at home, wearing masks, social distancing, and getting vaccinated even if it meant the deaths of those most vulnerable or their own loved ones - but perhaps this pandemic we're still living through while people bury their heads in the sand will be the one that teaches future generations, and governments, not to make the same mistakes.

One can hope.

I don’t usually read or enjoy poetry all that much, but Amanda Gorman’s collection was eloquent and emotional in a way that I wasn’t expecting. 

Her words perfectly capture the spirit and emotions that pretty much everyone has felt at some point in the past few years and I can’t imagine anyone not finding at least one poem that will deeply resonate. Even if you don’t like (or enjoy) poetry, I still urge you to pick this up—you may be surprised how much you enjoy it. 

And if your curious, some of my faves were:

At First 
The Shallows 
Lucent 
Fury & Faith
The Truth In One Nation
What We Carry 
(And of course) The Hill We Climb

After listening to Amanda Gordon's collection of poems on audio, I am wishing I had a paper copy to mark all my favorite poems and quotes. As with all collections or anthologies you may not connect with every single poem. But I found that those I did (which was the vast majority) were so throught-provoking and had such exquisite use of language that I cannot help but give 5 stars. The Poem Survey followed by Gated should be required reading. It was so striking.