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.”