Gorman, 22, became the youngest poet to speak at a presidential inauguration.
“When day comes we ask ourselves, ‘where can we find light in this never-ending shade?'”
“The loss we carry.
A sea we must wade.
We’ve braved the belly of the beast.
And yet, the dawn is ours before we knew it.
Somehow we do it.
Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken but simply unfinished.
And so, we lift our gazes not to what stands between us but what stands before us.”
Gorman was named Youth Poet Laureate of Los Angeles at the age of 16 in 2014.
Three years later in 2017, she was named the first National Youth Poet Laureate.
“And this effort very nearly succeeded.
But while democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated.
In this truth, in this faith we trust.
For while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us.”
“History has its eyes on us” is one of two references toHamiltonthat Gorman included in the poem.
Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of Hamilton, praised Gorman for the tribute.
“You were perfect.
Perfectly written, perfectly delivered.
Every bit of it,” he tweeted.
“We will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one,” Gorman recited.
“We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the west.
We will rise from the wind-swept northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution.
We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the midwestern states.
We will rise from the sun-baked south.
We will rebuild, reconcile, and recover.”
Watch Gorman’s full reading in the video above.
