In celebration of the New Year, Amanda Gorman, who was named the country’s first National Youth Poet Laureate in 2017, is encouraging the world to overcome yesterday’s troubles and reach toward what’s next in her latest poem via video, “New Day’s Lyric,” exclusively on Instagram.
The honor of beholding the title as the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history is just one of many achievements for the prolific poet. She won the hearts of presidential inaugural viewers with her poem, The Hill We Climb, which became an instant No. 1 New York Times and USA Today bestseller. Revered for her stunning looks, Gorman has also reportedly signed with IMG, where “she’ll be represented by the modeling agency for brand endorsements and other fashion-adjacent opportunities,” according to Business of Fashion.
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After earning her third instant bestseller with Call Us What We Carry: Poems, the 23-year-old has dropped her last poem for 2021. “New Day’s Lyric” reflects what has happened, acknowledges the pain and sorrows, and bestows an inspiring ode to 2022.
“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.”
The video opens with her onstage. She is captured in an elegant one-shouldered white dress, as the video journeys with her and her recited words throughout the theater.
“May this be the day / We come together,” she says. “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.”
In a separate post, Gorman shared that she is raising money for the International Rescue Committee, which provides lifesaving programs to communities worldwide affected by the coronavirus pandemic as well as humanitarian crises. According to her post, Instagram parent company Meta has also pledged $50,000 to the organization.