Amanda Gorman, the poet who came to national attention after her performance at Joe Biden’s inauguration, released a new work Wednesday to mark the end of 2021. The 23-year-old partnered with Instagram on her new poem, “New Day’s Lyric.”
Gorman posted a video of her reciting the poem on her Instagram. “I wrote A New Day’s Lyric both to celebrate the new year & honor both the hurt & the humanity of the last one,” she wrote. “I’m always shy to quote my own poems, but I believe it in my bones when I say: Come, look up with kindness yet, for wherever we come together, we will forever overcome.”
Instagram also shared a video of Gorman reciting the poem inside an empty theater. “What was cursed, we will cure. What was plagued, we will prove pure. Where we tend to argue, we will try to agree…,” she recites.
RELATED STORIES
Gorman made history on January 20 when she became the youngest poet to recite an original poem at a presidential inauguration. She was also the sixth poet to perform at an inauguration following in the footsteps of other greats like Maya Angelou and Robert Frost.
The Havard alum captivated the audience and viewers with her The Hill We Climb poem, earning her loads of commendations from celebrities including Oprah Winfrey as well as people on social media. Gorman revealed she wrote the inaugural poem on January 6 after the disturbing riots at the U.S. Capitol. She also mentioned that she wrote it along the lines of American unity, which was synonymous with the theme for Biden’s inauguration, “America United.”
Following her remarkable performance, Gorman’s ratings shot up, as she earned an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper and also appeared on Good Morning America and The Ellen DeGeneres Show where the hostess endorsed her for president in 2036.
Gorman also amassed a huge number of followers on social media after Inauguration Day, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Her Twitter followers rose to 1.4 million from an initial 7,000, while her Instagram follower count rose to 3.6 million.
She has gone on to perform at the Super Bowl and was recently signed by IMG Models. In April, she graced the cover of Vogue and co-chaired the 2021 Met Gala in September.
Read Gorman’s new poem“New Day’s Lyric” below:
May this be the day
We come together.
Mourning, we come to mend,
Withered, we come to weather,
Torn, we come to tend,
Battered, we come to better.
Tethered by this year of yearning,
We are learning
That though we weren’t ready for this,
We have been readied by it.
Steadily we vow that no matter
How we are weighed down,
We must always pave a way forward.
This hope is our door, our portal.
Even if we never get back to normal,
Someday we can venture beyond it,
To leave the known and take the first steps.
So let us not return to what was normal,
But reach toward what is next.
What was cursed, we will cure.
What was plagued, we will prove pure.
Where we tend to argue, we will try to agree,
Those fortunes we forswore, now the future we foresee,
Where we weren’t aware, we’re now awake;
Those moments we missed
Are now these moments we make,
The moments we meet,
And our hearts, once all together beaten,
Now all together beat.
Come, look up with kindness yet,
For even solace can be sourced from sorrow.
We remember, not just for the sake of yesterday,
But to take on tomorrow.
We heed this old spirit,
In a new day’s lyric,
In our hearts, we hear it:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne.
Be bold, sang Time this year,
Be bold, sang Time,
For when you honor yesterday,
Tomorrow ye will find.
Know what we’ve fought
Need not be forgot nor for none.
It defines us, binds us as one,
Come over, join this day just begun.
For wherever we come together,
We will forever overcome.
