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Amanda S. C. Gorman is an American poet and activist. Her work focuses on issues of oppression, feminism, race, and marginalization, as well as the African diaspora. Gorman was the first person to be named National Youth Poet Laureate. She gained international fame when she read her poem “The Hill We Climb” at the 2021 inauguration of U.S. Pres. Joe Biden.
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Lucent
What would we seem, stripped downLike a wintered tree.Glossy scabs, tight-raised skin,These can look silver in certain moonlights.In other words,Our scars are the brightestParts of us.* * *The crescent moon,The night’s lucent lesion.We are felled oaks beneath it,Branches full of empty.Look closer.What we share is moreThan what we’ve shed.* * *& what we share is the bark, the bones.Paleontologists, from one fossilized femur,Can dream up a species,Make-believe a bodyWhere there was none.Our remnants are revelation,Our requiem as raptus.When we bend into dirtWe’re truth preservedWithout our skin.* * *Lumen means both the cavityOf an organ, literally an opening,& a unit of luminous flux,Literally, a measurement of how litThe source is. Illuminate us.That is, we, too,Are this bodied unit of flare,The gap for lux to breach.* * *Sorry, must’ve been the lightPlaying tricks on us, we say,Knuckling our eyelids.But perhaps it is we who makeFalsities of luminescence—Our shadows playing tricks on stars.Every time their gazes tug down,They think us monsters, then men,Predators, then persons again,Beasts, then beings,Horrors, & then humans.Of all the stars the most beautifulIs nothing more than a monster,Just as starved & stranded as we are.
from Call Us What We Carry (2021)
What would we seem, stripped downLike a wintered tree.Glossy scabs, tight-raised skin,These can look silver in certain moonlights.In other words,Our scars are the brightestParts of us.* * *The crescent moon,The night’s lucent lesion.We are felled oaks beneath it,Branches full of empty.Look closer.What we share is moreThan what we’ve shed.* * *& what we share is the bark, the bones.Paleontologists, from one fossilized femur,Can dream up a species,Make-believe a bodyWhere there was none.Our remnants are revelation,Our requiem as raptus.When we bend into dirtWe’re truth preservedWithout our skin.* * *Lumen means both the cavityOf an organ, literally an opening,& a unit of luminous flux,Literally, a measurement of how litThe source is. Illuminate us.That is, we, too,Are this bodied unit of flare,The gap for lux to breach.* * *Sorry, must’ve been the lightPlaying tricks on us, we say,Knuckling our eyelids.But perhaps it is we who makeFalsities of luminescence—Our shadows playing tricks on stars.Every time their gazes tug down,They think us monsters, then men,Predators, then persons again,Beasts, then beings,Horrors, & then humans.Of all the stars the most beautifulIs nothing more than a monster,Just as starved & stranded as we are.
from Call Us What We Carry (2021)
Arborescent 1
We are Arborescent—What goes UnseenIs at the very Root of ourselves.Distance can Distort our deepestSense Of whoWe are, Leave usWarped & wastedAs winter’s Wind. We willNot walk From whatWe’ve borne. We wouldKeep it For a while.Sit silent & Swinging on its branchesLike a child Refusing to comeHome. We would Keep,We would Weep,Knowing how We wouldAgain Give upOur world For this one.
from Call Us What We Carry (2021)
We are Arborescent—What goes UnseenIs at the very Root of ourselves.Distance can Distort our deepestSense Of whoWe are, Leave usWarped & wastedAs winter’s Wind. We willNot walk From whatWe’ve borne. We wouldKeep it For a while.Sit silent & Swinging on its branchesLike a child Refusing to comeHome. We would Keep,We would Weep,Knowing how We wouldAgain Give upOur world For this one.
from Call Us What We Carry (2021)
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