‘Our goal is never revenge’: Poet Amanda Gorman’s path for healing

Millions of Americans experienced the power of poetry when Amanda Gorman presented “The Hill We Climb” at the presidential inauguration of Joe Biden last January. Gorman, the youngest inaugural poet, acknowledged that America is “far from polished, far from pristine,” yet captured the hopes of many with her closing lines: “The new dawn blooms as we free it, / For there is always light, / If only we’re brave enough to see it, / If only we’re brave enough to be it.”

A few days later, Gorman became the first poet to perform a poem at the Super Bowl. Her words honored an educator, a hospital worker, and a military veteran for their leadership during the pandemic. 

Now, with the publication of her first full poetry collection, “Call Us What We Carry,” Gorman expands and deepens her vision, gazing fearlessly at present circumstances and at the nation’s past. She imbues her work with timely, evocative language that shifts a reader’s perspective, explores hidden layers, and reveals wisdom and insight. 

For example, in the opening poem, “Ship’s Manifest,” Gorman notes, “To be accountable we must render an account: / Not what was said, but what was meant. / Not the fact, but what was felt. / What was known, even while unnamed.” 

That observation also describes how good poetry works. 

“Call Us What We Carry” is a rich, inventive collection divided into seven sections. Each section focuses on different aspects of history and the process of mourning or grappling with what has been lost.

Some of the most compelling poems deal with the losses and isolation that people have experienced throughout the pandemic. Others address injustices faced by Black Americans. In “Fury and Faith,” for example, Gorman undertakes the rage that many Black people feel and how that might be channeled: “Our goal is never revenge, just restoration. / Not dominance, just dignity. / Not fear, just freedom. / Just justice.”   

Recurring phrases and images thread through the work, as do references to music, literature, art, and culture. Together, those elements help illustrate the underlying theme that we carry memory, language, and trauma with us. How we carry them – with love, anger, or unforgiveness – determines our interactions with others and our very future.  

Part of what makes Gorman’s poetry compelling is her understanding that stories matter and that language can cleanse or defile us. In “Another Nautical” she writes: 

We, like the water, forget nothing,

Forgo everything.

Words, also like the water,

Are a type of washing.

Through them we cleanse ourselves

Of what we are not.

That is to say, words

Are how we are moored & unmarred. 

As readers move through these pages, they will feel a constant, gentle prompting to discard narrow, limited thinking. They will also hear the faint echo of major poets such as Lucille Clifton, Claudia Rankine, and James Baldwin who’ve stretched the genre and buttress Gorman’s distinctive, rising voice. 

Gorman, who is still in her 20s, has elevated poetry’s prestige. She has also energized young writers, who can see themselves through her eyes and words.  

Anyone who heard her inaugural performance can imagine her confident, poised delivery of the poems in “Call Us What We Carry.” Yet as Gorman has said in interviews, she struggled with a speech impediment until the past two or three years. Writing offered both respite and a form of self-expression.  

Her personal story lends credence to her observations about how difficult it can be to carry hope, and how necessary. As the title poem illustrates, “language is a life raft” that helps us bear and discard “Our rage, our wreckage, / Our hubris, our hate, / Our ghosts, our greed.” 

The best of her poems are brilliant and compelling; others are uneven and feel talky or didactic. Yet all of Gorman’s experiences and insights help readers understand the importance of cultivating hope and perseverance. She instills a sense of possibilities that might just help us start healing the divisiveness in the world.