Read Amanda Gorman’s End-Of-Year Poem, ‘New Day’s Lyric’
The Arts

Read Amanda Gorman’s End-Of-Year Poem, ‘New Day’s Lyric’

The talented, young wordsmith shines a light on vulnerable communities with a new, heartbreakingly good poem

Amanda Gorman, who rose to international fame after reading her poem, The Hill We Climb, at US President Joe Biden’s inauguration, has kicked off the new year with a brand new poem titled New Day’s Lyric. The poem was unveiled on Instagram’s official account via a captivating performance that was filmed in an empty theater. Presenting themes of struggle and healing, Gorman reposted the video with additional context, stating that the 48-line rhyme was intended to celebrate the new year and honor both the hurt and the humanity of the previous one.

In an interview with Vanity Fair ahead of the poem’s release, Gorman said that the poem was partly inspired by the stories of grief and determination she’s seen on social media, so publishing it on such a platform was a sound choice. With the moving words comes a clear call to action as well. Gorman also urged readers to donate money to the International Rescue Committee, an organization that aids people affected by humanitarian crises, including the Covid-19 pandemic.

Gorman was named the first National Youth Poet Laureate in 2017. After her history-making reading of The Hill We Climb at the inauguration in January 2021, weeks later she recited Chorus of the Captains at the Super Bowl, honoring the heroes of the pandemic. Then recently, in December 2021, she published her poetry collection Call Us What We Carry, which secured the top spot on the New York Times Best Sellers list for two weeks.

Read Amanda Gorman’s latest work, New Day’s Lyric, in full text 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.
We steadily 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.

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