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Call Us What We Carry: Poems
Goodreads Choice Award
Winner for Best Poetry (2022)Formerly titled The Hill We Climb and Other Poems, Amanda Gorman’s remarkable new collection reveals an energizing and unforgettable voice in American poetry. Call Us What We Carry is Gorman at her finest. Including “The Hill We Climb,” the stirring poem read at the inauguration of the 46th President of the United States, Joe Biden, and bursting with musical language and exploring themes of identity, grief, and memory, this lyric of hope and healing captures an important moment in our country’s consciousness while being utterly timeless.
The breakout poetry collection by #1 New York Times bestselling author and presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman.
The breakout poetry collection by #1 New York Times bestselling author and presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman.
228 pages, Hardcover
First published December 7, 2021
About the author
Amanda Gorman
28 books2,663 followersAmanda Gorman was the first Youth Poet Laureate of the United States. She is also an activist. Gorman's work focuses on issues of oppression, feminism, race, and marginalization, as well as the African diaspora. In January 2021, she became the youngest poet to read at a presidential inauguration, reading her poem "The Hill We Climb" at the inauguration of Joe Biden.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 3,574 reviews
December 9, 2022
**Winner of the 2022 Goodreads Choice Award for Poetry**
‘To Begin again / Isn’t to go backwards, / But to decide to go.’
The poetry world was given quite a boost on Jan 20th, 2021 when poet Amanda Gorman took the stage at the Presidential Inauguration. ‘There is always light,’ she read ‘if only we’re brave enough to see it. / If only we’re brave enough to be it.’ While I was thrilled to see poets included in an inauguration again after being denied by the previous administration, it was also wonderful to see how many people were touched by her words and suddenly excited by poetry. I thought ‘welcome abroad, this is the good place.’ Call Us What We Carry is the first collection of poetry by 23 year old poet Amanda Gorman, which includes her inaugural speech and so much more as she addresses the social ills of racism, gun violence, greed, selfishness, and chronicles the grief of the pandemic years, asking for unity and cooperation instead of sticking our heads in the sand to decide something is ‘not your problem.’ Gorman is quite impressive, accomplishing so much already and this collection full of experimentation with form and bold accounting of the tumultuous present is the spark to a bright future of words and wisdom.
‘Hope is the soft bird
We send across the sea
To see if this earth is still home.
We ask you honestly:
Is it?’
Gorman’s poetry is a call to action amidst difficult times both nationally and globally. ‘This year the size of a sea / sick to its stomach’ she writes to describe the pandemic years still unfolding in the US where political tensions are at a tipping point egged on by bad faith rhetoric in the type of insidious lowest-common-denominator messaging that capitalism thrives on. Which is the perfect time for poetry to step in and make sense of it all, even if I may not exactly be ready for pandemic poetry. And Gorman uses the harsh truths as a reminder to come together in love and understanding, that moving forward through selfishness or ‘I got mine’ mentality will lead only to chaos. ‘As the world came / We have come together,’ she writes, ‘Only we can save us.’ It is all very hopeful and empowering, yet Gorman avoids coming across as saccharine by reminding us ‘there is no meek way to mend’ or that ‘at times even blessings will bleed us.’ Growth is hard, progress can be painful, but the alternative is worse.
‘The world still terrifies us.
We’re told to write what we know.
We write what we’re afraid of
Only then is our fear
Made small by what we love.’
Gorman has some delightful experimentation with style and form, such as poems constructed out of a questionnaire for migrants, poems in the shape of surgical masks, or the poem Monomyth written like the screenplay for a documentary of the past 2 years with each scene followed by the dates and events of the pandemic corresponding to her imagery. The poem reminds us ‘We are not all heroes, but we are all at least human,’ and in that reminds us that we have gone on a quest of events these past few years and have inevitably been transformed.
At times the poetry feels a bit overly ‘Go USA’, which isn’t exactly a topic I enjoy in poetry, but I see the reasoning and it comes across as patriotic rather than nationalist and Gorman addresses many systemic issues that are plaguing the country. ‘What can we call a country that destroys / itself just because it can?’ she asks, and much of the book examines the way racism and violence has wormed its way into the heart of the country as she pleads with us to examine it and undo it. Something I particularly enjoy about her analysis is her attention to the way language and rhetoric become the barbs through which social ills latch on in order to infect. Poems like Vale of the Shadow of Death, which is structured in columns like a newspaper, discuss historical events like the “Spanish Influenza”, pointing out it did not actually originate in Spain (she mentions the Spanish called it the French flu). ‘To tell the truth, then, is to risk / being remembered by its fiction,’ she writes as the poem discusses how fearmongering and language are used to oppress and Other people. Jim Crow, the Chinese Exclusion Act and more are addressed in a poem that calls for speaking out, speaking true, and to respect the power of language.
‘Words matter, for
Language is an ark.
Yes,
Language is an art,
An articulate artifact.
Language is a life craft.
Yes,
Language is a life raft.'
-from What We Carry
Language can harm, but it can also heal, and Gorman captures this duality well in her first collection of poetry. What We Carry is an interesting literary artifact of the present that chronicles the discourse and troubles of the United States over the recent years into a plea for better action, better times and better understanding. While it will inevitably be politicized on party lines because that's what trolls do in place of a personality, it doesn’t have to be and certainly doesn’t read that way. For newcomers to poetry who like what they see here I’d like to recommend some favorites such as Audre Lorde, Jericho Brown or the absolute greatest, Lucille Clifton, who you will certainly find more to examine and enjoy. Amanda Gorman is a bright young woman with a shining career ahead of her and I am happy to see it and watch how she has brought poetry into the hearts of many.
3.75/5
‘That is to say,
Love is justified by loving.
Like you, we are haunted & human.
You, like us, are haunted & healing.’
‘To Begin again / Isn’t to go backwards, / But to decide to go.’
The poetry world was given quite a boost on Jan 20th, 2021 when poet Amanda Gorman took the stage at the Presidential Inauguration. ‘There is always light,’ she read ‘if only we’re brave enough to see it. / If only we’re brave enough to be it.’ While I was thrilled to see poets included in an inauguration again after being denied by the previous administration, it was also wonderful to see how many people were touched by her words and suddenly excited by poetry. I thought ‘welcome abroad, this is the good place.’ Call Us What We Carry is the first collection of poetry by 23 year old poet Amanda Gorman, which includes her inaugural speech and so much more as she addresses the social ills of racism, gun violence, greed, selfishness, and chronicles the grief of the pandemic years, asking for unity and cooperation instead of sticking our heads in the sand to decide something is ‘not your problem.’ Gorman is quite impressive, accomplishing so much already and this collection full of experimentation with form and bold accounting of the tumultuous present is the spark to a bright future of words and wisdom.
‘Hope is the soft bird
We send across the sea
To see if this earth is still home.
We ask you honestly:
Is it?’
Gorman’s poetry is a call to action amidst difficult times both nationally and globally. ‘This year the size of a sea / sick to its stomach’ she writes to describe the pandemic years still unfolding in the US where political tensions are at a tipping point egged on by bad faith rhetoric in the type of insidious lowest-common-denominator messaging that capitalism thrives on. Which is the perfect time for poetry to step in and make sense of it all, even if I may not exactly be ready for pandemic poetry. And Gorman uses the harsh truths as a reminder to come together in love and understanding, that moving forward through selfishness or ‘I got mine’ mentality will lead only to chaos. ‘As the world came / We have come together,’ she writes, ‘Only we can save us.’ It is all very hopeful and empowering, yet Gorman avoids coming across as saccharine by reminding us ‘there is no meek way to mend’ or that ‘at times even blessings will bleed us.’ Growth is hard, progress can be painful, but the alternative is worse.
‘The world still terrifies us.
We’re told to write what we know.
We write what we’re afraid of
Only then is our fear
Made small by what we love.’
Gorman has some delightful experimentation with style and form, such as poems constructed out of a questionnaire for migrants, poems in the shape of surgical masks, or the poem Monomyth written like the screenplay for a documentary of the past 2 years with each scene followed by the dates and events of the pandemic corresponding to her imagery. The poem reminds us ‘We are not all heroes, but we are all at least human,’ and in that reminds us that we have gone on a quest of events these past few years and have inevitably been transformed.
At times the poetry feels a bit overly ‘Go USA’, which isn’t exactly a topic I enjoy in poetry, but I see the reasoning and it comes across as patriotic rather than nationalist and Gorman addresses many systemic issues that are plaguing the country. ‘What can we call a country that destroys / itself just because it can?’ she asks, and much of the book examines the way racism and violence has wormed its way into the heart of the country as she pleads with us to examine it and undo it. Something I particularly enjoy about her analysis is her attention to the way language and rhetoric become the barbs through which social ills latch on in order to infect. Poems like Vale of the Shadow of Death, which is structured in columns like a newspaper, discuss historical events like the “Spanish Influenza”, pointing out it did not actually originate in Spain (she mentions the Spanish called it the French flu). ‘To tell the truth, then, is to risk / being remembered by its fiction,’ she writes as the poem discusses how fearmongering and language are used to oppress and Other people. Jim Crow, the Chinese Exclusion Act and more are addressed in a poem that calls for speaking out, speaking true, and to respect the power of language.
‘Words matter, for
Language is an ark.
Yes,
Language is an art,
An articulate artifact.
Language is a life craft.
Yes,
Language is a life raft.'
-from What We Carry
Language can harm, but it can also heal, and Gorman captures this duality well in her first collection of poetry. What We Carry is an interesting literary artifact of the present that chronicles the discourse and troubles of the United States over the recent years into a plea for better action, better times and better understanding. While it will inevitably be politicized on party lines because that's what trolls do in place of a personality, it doesn’t have to be and certainly doesn’t read that way. For newcomers to poetry who like what they see here I’d like to recommend some favorites such as Audre Lorde, Jericho Brown or the absolute greatest, Lucille Clifton, who you will certainly find more to examine and enjoy. Amanda Gorman is a bright young woman with a shining career ahead of her and I am happy to see it and watch how she has brought poetry into the hearts of many.
3.75/5
‘That is to say,
Love is justified by loving.
Like you, we are haunted & human.
You, like us, are haunted & healing.’
January 20, 2021
"Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true.
That even as we grieved, we grew.
That even as we hurt, we hoped.
That even as we tired, we tried."
Damn. I love this poem.
That even as we grieved, we grew.
That even as we hurt, we hoped.
That even as we tired, we tried."
Damn. I love this poem.
December 26, 2021
‘words matter, for language is an ark. yes, language is an art… language is a life craft. yes, language is a life raft.’
i, like most people, first heard and were inspired by AG when she delivered her inauguration poem, ‘the hill we climb,’ back in january. i was captivated by her words and was so excited to hear she would be releasing a collection.
and let me tell you what. this collection is massive - there are 70 poems in this! and while reading, i discovered the same thing i always do when i pick up a poetry book - there are some entries that i adore and relate to more than others.
some favourites:
so 4 stars for now, because i really did enjoy the content of the majority of her poetry. but i have a feeling once i get my hands on an audiobook, it will probably get a bump up.
↠ 4 stars
i, like most people, first heard and were inspired by AG when she delivered her inauguration poem, ‘the hill we climb,’ back in january. i was captivated by her words and was so excited to hear she would be releasing a collection.
and let me tell you what. this collection is massive - there are 70 poems in this! and while reading, i discovered the same thing i always do when i pick up a poetry book - there are some entries that i adore and relate to more than others.
some favourites:
- compassand also, with this collection specifically, i think i would have liked a lot more of the poems better had i listened to this, rather then read it. i think AGs poetry has power in her unique delivery. i feel like, because im missing out on the cadence and intonation of her words, a lot of the poems just didnt have a natural flow to them.
- pre-memory
- monomyth
- what we carry
- the hill we climb
so 4 stars for now, because i really did enjoy the content of the majority of her poetry. but i have a feeling once i get my hands on an audiobook, it will probably get a bump up.
↠ 4 stars
December 10, 2022
Winner: Goodreads Choice Awards 2022 - Best Poetry
I don't usually vote in the awards, as I don't read enough new and popular books, but I'm pleased this collection has won. I was given it for Christmas 2021, and loved it:
“This book, like a ship, is meant to be lived in.” - from “Another Nautical”
I became aware of Gorman when she performed her poem “The Hill We Climb” at Biden's inauguration. This is a collection of recent poems that vary in form, but overlap in subjects: the Covid pandemic (though rarely named) and the historic and current experience of African Americans (from slavery to BLM) wax and wane and sometimes intersect. The final poem is the first one most of us encountered.
“This book is a message in a bottle.” - from “Ship’s Manifest”
Her voice is insightful, informative, consistent, potent, playful, and kind. Always, there is hope, but not in an empty or sentimental way. It's claimed assertively.
“We found the stubborn devotion to say:
Where we can we shall hope.” - from “In the Deep”
I’m glad I read these in sequence, spread over several weeks, rather than dipping in at random, because there is a broader arc that adds strength to Gorman’s message of hope.
Wordplay
There are literary allusions (explained in detailed notes), and her style is distinct, even in the many different forms and formats.
All the writing is poetic, though she's more inclined to wordplay that isn't really rhyme (sick of home... homesick; more akin... to kin; no better compass than compassion; loss... lost; fractured… fractal, and homophones like wail/whale, allowed/aloud, and profit/prophet). She always uses ampersands, rather than “and”. Some of the pieces would not be poems in most people's eyes, a few definitely are, but most are in the liminal space between. There are shape poems, essays, pieces with missing words, reworkings of historical documents, and the odd near-joke.
“Roses are red
Violence is blue
We’re sick of dying
How ‘bout you” - “Roses”
Image: “We were mouthless for months… Who were we beneath our mask.” - poem called “Anonymous”, on a mask
Themes
Gorman follows her history teacher’s advice to write to her ghosts, rather than running away from them. She explores individual and societal trauma, often indirectly: the many ways history’s echoes scratch fresh scars to this day, and how pandemic restrictions have affected us. Seas and trees too.
“The hurt is how we know
We are alive & awake.” - from “Good Grief”
As a white Brit, I related more to the Covid and lockdown poems, but I was often more moved by the ones about black experiences.
“To be haunted is to be hunted
By a history that is still hurting.” - from “_____[Gated]”
It’s prophetic, too. Five days after Russia invaded Ukraine, it has extra power.
“As the regular sprang back,
So did the violence…
Nowadays, living
Is a dying art.” - from “The Truth of One Nation”
Quotes
It is perhaps unfair to cite snippets of crafted art, but anyway:
“March shuddered into a year,
Sloshing with millions of lonely,
An overcrowded solitude.” - from “At First”
“This edgeless doubt:
Every cough seemed catastrophe,
Every proximate person a potential peril.” - from “Fugue”
“There is power in being robbed
& still choosing to dance.” - from “School’s Out”
“It’s not what was done that will haunt us,
But what was withheld.” - from “In the Deep”
“We stalked ourselves for days in our own house,
Absolutely abulic, incessantly incensed.”
“It's said that ignorance is bliss.
Ignorance is this: a vine that
sneaks up a tree, killing not by
poison, but by blocking out its
Light.” - from “Vale of the Shadow of Death or Extra! Extra! Read All About It!”
“The first step in warfare & pandemics is the same:
Isolation…
The second step in warfare & pandemics
Is the same: continuation.” - from “War: What, is it Good?”
“Grief, like glass, can be both a mirror and a window… We become a window pain.” - from “Report on Migration of Roes”
“One nation under guns…
Scars and stripes…
One nation, under ghosts.” - from “The Truth of One Nation”
“Words matter, for
Language is an ark.
Yes,
Language is an art,
An articulate artifact.
Language is a life craft.
Yes,
Language is a life raft.” - from “What We Carry”
The Hill We Climb is the final poem in this collection. See my short review HERE.
Image: Gorman performing “The Hill We Climb” at the inauguration (Source)
I don't usually vote in the awards, as I don't read enough new and popular books, but I'm pleased this collection has won. I was given it for Christmas 2021, and loved it:
“This book, like a ship, is meant to be lived in.” - from “Another Nautical”
I became aware of Gorman when she performed her poem “The Hill We Climb” at Biden's inauguration. This is a collection of recent poems that vary in form, but overlap in subjects: the Covid pandemic (though rarely named) and the historic and current experience of African Americans (from slavery to BLM) wax and wane and sometimes intersect. The final poem is the first one most of us encountered.
“This book is a message in a bottle.” - from “Ship’s Manifest”
Her voice is insightful, informative, consistent, potent, playful, and kind. Always, there is hope, but not in an empty or sentimental way. It's claimed assertively.
“We found the stubborn devotion to say:
Where we can we shall hope.” - from “In the Deep”
I’m glad I read these in sequence, spread over several weeks, rather than dipping in at random, because there is a broader arc that adds strength to Gorman’s message of hope.
Wordplay
There are literary allusions (explained in detailed notes), and her style is distinct, even in the many different forms and formats.
All the writing is poetic, though she's more inclined to wordplay that isn't really rhyme (sick of home... homesick; more akin... to kin; no better compass than compassion; loss... lost; fractured… fractal, and homophones like wail/whale, allowed/aloud, and profit/prophet). She always uses ampersands, rather than “and”. Some of the pieces would not be poems in most people's eyes, a few definitely are, but most are in the liminal space between. There are shape poems, essays, pieces with missing words, reworkings of historical documents, and the odd near-joke.
“Roses are red
Violence is blue
We’re sick of dying
How ‘bout you” - “Roses”
Image: “We were mouthless for months… Who were we beneath our mask.” - poem called “Anonymous”, on a mask
Themes
Gorman follows her history teacher’s advice to write to her ghosts, rather than running away from them. She explores individual and societal trauma, often indirectly: the many ways history’s echoes scratch fresh scars to this day, and how pandemic restrictions have affected us. Seas and trees too.
“The hurt is how we know
We are alive & awake.” - from “Good Grief”
As a white Brit, I related more to the Covid and lockdown poems, but I was often more moved by the ones about black experiences.
“To be haunted is to be hunted
By a history that is still hurting.” - from “_____[Gated]”
It’s prophetic, too. Five days after Russia invaded Ukraine, it has extra power.
“As the regular sprang back,
So did the violence…
Nowadays, living
Is a dying art.” - from “The Truth of One Nation”
Quotes
It is perhaps unfair to cite snippets of crafted art, but anyway:
“March shuddered into a year,
Sloshing with millions of lonely,
An overcrowded solitude.” - from “At First”
“This edgeless doubt:
Every cough seemed catastrophe,
Every proximate person a potential peril.” - from “Fugue”
“There is power in being robbed
& still choosing to dance.” - from “School’s Out”
“It’s not what was done that will haunt us,
But what was withheld.” - from “In the Deep”
“We stalked ourselves for days in our own house,
Absolutely abulic, incessantly incensed.”
“It's said that ignorance is bliss.
Ignorance is this: a vine that
sneaks up a tree, killing not by
poison, but by blocking out its
Light.” - from “Vale of the Shadow of Death or Extra! Extra! Read All About It!”
“The first step in warfare & pandemics is the same:
Isolation…
The second step in warfare & pandemics
Is the same: continuation.” - from “War: What, is it Good?”
“Grief, like glass, can be both a mirror and a window… We become a window pain.” - from “Report on Migration of Roes”
“One nation under guns…
Scars and stripes…
One nation, under ghosts.” - from “The Truth of One Nation”
“Words matter, for
Language is an ark.
Yes,
Language is an art,
An articulate artifact.
Language is a life craft.
Yes,
Language is a life raft.” - from “What We Carry”
The Hill We Climb is the final poem in this collection. See my short review HERE.
Image: Gorman performing “The Hill We Climb” at the inauguration (Source)
June 1, 2023
They just get better and better with time
February 12, 2023
Wow! Words can't adequately describe my reaction to Amanda Gorman's poetry in Call Us What We Carry.
Gorman is the youngest presidential inaugural poet in US history, and she stunned the world with her poem, The Hill We Climb, during the inauguration of President Joe Biden.
The poems in her book capture the time, terror and feelings during the global pandemic (both during the Spanish Flu in 1918 and the COVID pandemic in 2020) and centuries of system racial discrimination including the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many others.
Some of the memorable poetry passages include:
* Unprecedented and unpresidented
* Frayed and afraid
* Our souls, solitary and solemn
* Alive but alone
* Our scars are the brightest part of us
* Isolation is its own climate
* Trauma is like a season; deep and dependable
* Pre-memory determines who we are as a people
* Storytelling is a way that unarticulated memory becomes an art
* Grief is the grenade that always goes off
* The Spanish influenza did not originate in Spain. The first recorded case was in Kansas. Spain was neutral in World War I.
* Ignorance is a vine that sneaks up a tree and blocks out the light
* Courage must cost something, or else it is worth nothing at all
* Isolation is the first step in war and pandemics
* A virus separates us from people
* Hate is a virus
* Hate only survives when hosted in humans
* Never forget that to be alone has always been a price for some and a privilege for others
* Who were we beneath our mask?
* Language is a life craft. Language is a life raft.
Highly, highly recommend!
Gorman is the youngest presidential inaugural poet in US history, and she stunned the world with her poem, The Hill We Climb, during the inauguration of President Joe Biden.
The poems in her book capture the time, terror and feelings during the global pandemic (both during the Spanish Flu in 1918 and the COVID pandemic in 2020) and centuries of system racial discrimination including the tragic deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many others.
Some of the memorable poetry passages include:
* Unprecedented and unpresidented
* Frayed and afraid
* Our souls, solitary and solemn
* Alive but alone
* Our scars are the brightest part of us
* Isolation is its own climate
* Trauma is like a season; deep and dependable
* Pre-memory determines who we are as a people
* Storytelling is a way that unarticulated memory becomes an art
* Grief is the grenade that always goes off
* The Spanish influenza did not originate in Spain. The first recorded case was in Kansas. Spain was neutral in World War I.
* Ignorance is a vine that sneaks up a tree and blocks out the light
* Courage must cost something, or else it is worth nothing at all
* Isolation is the first step in war and pandemics
* A virus separates us from people
* Hate is a virus
* Hate only survives when hosted in humans
* Never forget that to be alone has always been a price for some and a privilege for others
* Who were we beneath our mask?
* Language is a life craft. Language is a life raft.
Highly, highly recommend!
November 27, 2022
Now a Goodreads Choice Nominee in Poetry!!
“We've learned that quiet isn't always peace, and the norms and notions of what ‘just’ is isn't always justice.”
I listened to the audiobook of Call Us What We Carry read by the author, Amanda Gorman. I absolutely recommend going this route as nobody will have a better handle on the content and know where to place inflections more than the person who crafted it. I was also surprised to learn Gorman had a speech impediment growing up, because she spoke clearly, confidently and beautifully while reciting her poems.
*insert usual disclaimer of knowing nothing about poetry*
But really, this is the wrong review to read if you want smart technical analysis. All I can offer is some of the topics covered and highly recommend it to anyone who asks. That’s probably for the best regardless of who is writing about Call Us What We Carry, though, as I think Gorman’s words are best left standing on their own.
The first half is a lot of reflecting on the past nearly two years during the pandemic, especially as a young woman living in America. You can hear generational markers in her words and tone, and some of the relentless idealism Gen Z is known for. The second half then moves toward what happened during the George Floyd protests last summer, but also more broadly covering race, the Trump presidency (though never by name), and a call to action for issues like climate change. Her delivery is sharp and smart, breathing new life into discourse that’s well broken-in at this point.
“Grief is the grenade that always goes off.”
The book ends on a hopeful note, with the famous inaugural poem The Hill We Climb. Still, even before then Gorman does her best to pick us up off of the floor, deeply longing but still believing in a possibility for a better world. I can’t say I always share Gorman’s optimism. While we are losing the fight to keep yet another generation from plunging into insurmountable student loan/medical debt and debating whether senior citizens deserve to have teeth. While natural disasters and infectious diseases that could have been mitigated are free to rip through vulnerable communities. While our politicians (yes, including democrats) remain bought and paid for ideologues to corporate interests.
“And so we lift our gaze, not to what stands between us, but what stands before us.”
Sure, but ‘what stands before us’ might be too much at this point for just ‘who stands beside us’ to handle on our own. Here’s hoping that people who helped create these problems actually step up to solve them instead of pinning all their hopes on a number of courageous 23-year-olds.
“We've learned that quiet isn't always peace, and the norms and notions of what ‘just’ is isn't always justice.”
I listened to the audiobook of Call Us What We Carry read by the author, Amanda Gorman. I absolutely recommend going this route as nobody will have a better handle on the content and know where to place inflections more than the person who crafted it. I was also surprised to learn Gorman had a speech impediment growing up, because she spoke clearly, confidently and beautifully while reciting her poems.
*insert usual disclaimer of knowing nothing about poetry*
But really, this is the wrong review to read if you want smart technical analysis. All I can offer is some of the topics covered and highly recommend it to anyone who asks. That’s probably for the best regardless of who is writing about Call Us What We Carry, though, as I think Gorman’s words are best left standing on their own.
The first half is a lot of reflecting on the past nearly two years during the pandemic, especially as a young woman living in America. You can hear generational markers in her words and tone, and some of the relentless idealism Gen Z is known for. The second half then moves toward what happened during the George Floyd protests last summer, but also more broadly covering race, the Trump presidency (though never by name), and a call to action for issues like climate change. Her delivery is sharp and smart, breathing new life into discourse that’s well broken-in at this point.
“Grief is the grenade that always goes off.”
The book ends on a hopeful note, with the famous inaugural poem The Hill We Climb. Still, even before then Gorman does her best to pick us up off of the floor, deeply longing but still believing in a possibility for a better world. I can’t say I always share Gorman’s optimism. While we are losing the fight to keep yet another generation from plunging into insurmountable student loan/medical debt and debating whether senior citizens deserve to have teeth. While natural disasters and infectious diseases that could have been mitigated are free to rip through vulnerable communities. While our politicians (yes, including democrats) remain bought and paid for ideologues to corporate interests.
“And so we lift our gaze, not to what stands between us, but what stands before us.”
Sure, but ‘what stands before us’ might be too much at this point for just ‘who stands beside us’ to handle on our own. Here’s hoping that people who helped create these problems actually step up to solve them instead of pinning all their hopes on a number of courageous 23-year-olds.
December 11, 2021
What an astounding collection of poems! Amanda Gorman is brilliant and insightful, and writes with so much clarity and passion. Her way with words is playful and yet oh so impactful.
Young people like her give me hope for this world.
Young people like her give me hope for this world.
January 1, 2022
I feel this collection was rushed because Gorman's impressive performance at the inauguration gained the attention of the general public which was a great disservice to the poet. A number of the poems felt like workshop exercises.
December 30, 2021
Amanda Gorman, the young girl who upstaged Joe Biden’s
Inauguration Day with her brilliance and beauty — making many of us around the world ‘gasp-in-awe’ …..
gives us a “Call Us What We Carry: Poems”…..
…. formally called “The Hill We Climb and Other Poems”…..
Amanda Gordon deserves all the praise and admiration she is getting.
Poetry, history, identity, grief, the pandemic, healing, the future …..
These poems are uniquely structured, ingeniously inventive…
Gorgeous — scholarly — illuminating….. Amazing!
“Life is not what is promised,
But what is sought.
These bones, not what is found,
But what we’ve fought.
Our truth, not what we said,
But what we thought.
Our lesson, all we have taken
& all we have brought”.
“We’re writing as the daughter of a / dying world / as its new-face alert. / In math, the slash / also called the solidus / means division, divided by. / We were divided / from each other, person / person. Some griefs, like rivers, are uncross / able.
They are not to be waded across / but walked beside
Our loss / colossal &
blossomed/ is never lost on us. Love the earth / like we’ve failed it. To put it plain / we have shipwrecked the earth /
soiled the soil / & run the ground aground. Listen. We are the loud toll / on this planet. / Our future needs us / alarmed. Man is a myth / in the making. / what is now dust will not return, / not the beloveds / nor their breath, / nor the sugar-crumbling glaciers, / nor the crows chewing / on their own sour song, / nor all the species / slashed / down / in one smogged swoop. / Extinction is a chorus / of quiet punching / that same note. What can never be brought back / can still be brought forth / in memory / in mouth / in mind. To say it plain is to tell / only half / of the story”.
Magnificent!
Personally … I’d suggest the PHYSICAL book …. over the Kindle
Inauguration Day with her brilliance and beauty — making many of us around the world ‘gasp-in-awe’ …..
gives us a “Call Us What We Carry: Poems”…..
…. formally called “The Hill We Climb and Other Poems”…..
Amanda Gordon deserves all the praise and admiration she is getting.
Poetry, history, identity, grief, the pandemic, healing, the future …..
These poems are uniquely structured, ingeniously inventive…
Gorgeous — scholarly — illuminating….. Amazing!
“Life is not what is promised,
But what is sought.
These bones, not what is found,
But what we’ve fought.
Our truth, not what we said,
But what we thought.
Our lesson, all we have taken
& all we have brought”.
“We’re writing as the daughter of a / dying world / as its new-face alert. / In math, the slash / also called the solidus / means division, divided by. / We were divided / from each other, person / person. Some griefs, like rivers, are uncross / able.
They are not to be waded across / but walked beside
Our loss / colossal &
blossomed/ is never lost on us. Love the earth / like we’ve failed it. To put it plain / we have shipwrecked the earth /
soiled the soil / & run the ground aground. Listen. We are the loud toll / on this planet. / Our future needs us / alarmed. Man is a myth / in the making. / what is now dust will not return, / not the beloveds / nor their breath, / nor the sugar-crumbling glaciers, / nor the crows chewing / on their own sour song, / nor all the species / slashed / down / in one smogged swoop. / Extinction is a chorus / of quiet punching / that same note. What can never be brought back / can still be brought forth / in memory / in mouth / in mind. To say it plain is to tell / only half / of the story”.
Magnificent!
Personally … I’d suggest the PHYSICAL book …. over the Kindle
December 22, 2022
4.5/5 stars
Amanda Gorman has got me into poetry again! Call Us What We Carry is a collection of poetry by the youngest poet ever to give an inaugural poetry reading. The poem she recited at President Biden’s inauguration in January 2021, The Hill We Climb, first catapulted her into international fame, and I can see why!
Call Us What We Carry features “The Hill We Climb” among many other poems that cover the complexities of human experience—from grief to mental health to collective healing to social movements as people grapple with the existential questions raised by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is a tough slate of topics to handle, but Gorman does it with her usual finesse and grace. There are poetic structures I recognize from my literature classes, such as the haiku, but Gorman also throws in quite a bit of freestyle.
By that, I mean she not only explores the boundaries of poetic expression, but depicts her poetry in a variety of mediums, from shapes to addendums to actual historical documents. (For the record, I had no idea that shape poetry existed until now. I find it intriguing, albeit a bit difficult orientation-wise when reading!) My favorite shape poem took the shape of a whale, but I figure others may have a different opinion.
I think some of my favorite lines, which express how joy can still come through, even in the most trying of circumstances, are:
I think it speaks to the resilience of human beings when we feel like we’ve been pushed to our limits. I found during the lockdowns that any opportunity to do something that brought me joy was essential in keeping me going. More than ever.
It may sound cliché, or even common sense, but it was very true. And Gorman could express clichés in ways that didn’t even sound cliché (if that makes sense)!
Recognizing that not everyone is into poetry, I still would highly recommend giving Call Us What You Carry a chance. It is challenging, but rewards those who persevere.
-Cora
See also: Our review of The Hill We Climb
Find this book and other titles within our catalog.
Amanda Gorman has got me into poetry again! Call Us What We Carry is a collection of poetry by the youngest poet ever to give an inaugural poetry reading. The poem she recited at President Biden’s inauguration in January 2021, The Hill We Climb, first catapulted her into international fame, and I can see why!
Call Us What We Carry features “The Hill We Climb” among many other poems that cover the complexities of human experience—from grief to mental health to collective healing to social movements as people grapple with the existential questions raised by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is a tough slate of topics to handle, but Gorman does it with her usual finesse and grace. There are poetic structures I recognize from my literature classes, such as the haiku, but Gorman also throws in quite a bit of freestyle.
By that, I mean she not only explores the boundaries of poetic expression, but depicts her poetry in a variety of mediums, from shapes to addendums to actual historical documents. (For the record, I had no idea that shape poetry existed until now. I find it intriguing, albeit a bit difficult orientation-wise when reading!) My favorite shape poem took the shape of a whale, but I figure others may have a different opinion.
I think some of my favorite lines, which express how joy can still come through, even in the most trying of circumstances, are:
“We don’t need a gown.
We don’t need a stage.
We are walking beside our ancestors,
Their drums roar for us,
Their feet stomp at our life.
There is power in being robbed
& still choosing to dance.”
I think it speaks to the resilience of human beings when we feel like we’ve been pushed to our limits. I found during the lockdowns that any opportunity to do something that brought me joy was essential in keeping me going. More than ever.
It may sound cliché, or even common sense, but it was very true. And Gorman could express clichés in ways that didn’t even sound cliché (if that makes sense)!
Recognizing that not everyone is into poetry, I still would highly recommend giving Call Us What You Carry a chance. It is challenging, but rewards those who persevere.
-Cora
See also: Our review of The Hill We Climb
Find this book and other titles within our catalog.
January 23, 2022
I was really looking forward to reading this, especially after all the hype from her presenting at the inauguration. What I found was a bunch of repetitive lines that could have been written by any of my students. I was surprised when I Googled her age and found her to be 23 years old. I had assumed she was in high school, which is why I didn't judge the poetry too harshly initially.
This book is filled with too many previous accounts of past pandemics, from the Spanish Infulenza to slavery and wars, to be considered original content. She simply restates and lists historical documents and re-words them with a rhyme scheme. Any of my 8th grade students could do that.
Maybe it's because I listened to the audiobook and didn't read the words printed on an actual page. I'll give it that, but I waited for four hours of "poetry" for even one line to stand out to me as quote-worthy or notable or deep or touching... and none ever did.
With the way she is lauded, I was expecting something more akin to Jamaica Kincaid, Maya Angelou or Langston Hughes. What I got was a sloppy attempt at mashing words together with overused alliteration and unrhythmic lines. (for example: "This book is awake. This book is a wake." I mean... really?)
There are plenty of good ideas in this book, and you can tell Gorman is authentic and has a genuine voice to her. However, it is evident that this book was rushed after her newfound fame, as a cash-grab. It feels very thrown together and haphazard.
Reflections on a pandemic that is very much NOT over, feels a bit premature and assumptive. The entire first half was simply reciting statistics and facts that we are all too familiar with already. Like I mentioned previously, it's nothing new. In fact, it's weary and dull. It felt very much like a high school student desperately copy/pasting citations from Wikipedia to fulfill a word count limit.
I tell my students all the time, I want to hear what YOU think, not what the internet thinks.
Every other page was a constant interruption of thought to insert a definition or clarify what she meant. Rule number 1 in creative writing: Don't make the assumption that your reader is stupid. Say what you mean in any eloquent way you wish, and those who get it will "get it" and those who don't can go look it up themselves. Using way too many interruptions broke my interest and left me feeling frustrated that she felt the need to clarify things I already knew. Most of her literary references were fairly common and recognizable, yet she broke her poem's rhythm over and over just to "insert reference here just in case you didn't know what I was talking about." Put a footnote if you really want to educate your audience, but don't assume (as a 23 year old) that your readers won't have a clue what you're referring to.
Many of these poems felt like responses to a creative writing college class prompt and not a fresh original idea naturally inspired. Her use of words like "Zoombies" is cringe-worthy in an era we are still living through and comes off as out-of-touch and juvenile.
I wish I could like this, and went into it with relatively high hopes. Sad to see her publishers pushing for more content. I'd be interested in reading more natural work from her later in her career.
This book is filled with too many previous accounts of past pandemics, from the Spanish Infulenza to slavery and wars, to be considered original content. She simply restates and lists historical documents and re-words them with a rhyme scheme. Any of my 8th grade students could do that.
Maybe it's because I listened to the audiobook and didn't read the words printed on an actual page. I'll give it that, but I waited for four hours of "poetry" for even one line to stand out to me as quote-worthy or notable or deep or touching... and none ever did.
With the way she is lauded, I was expecting something more akin to Jamaica Kincaid, Maya Angelou or Langston Hughes. What I got was a sloppy attempt at mashing words together with overused alliteration and unrhythmic lines. (for example: "This book is awake. This book is a wake." I mean... really?)
There are plenty of good ideas in this book, and you can tell Gorman is authentic and has a genuine voice to her. However, it is evident that this book was rushed after her newfound fame, as a cash-grab. It feels very thrown together and haphazard.
Reflections on a pandemic that is very much NOT over, feels a bit premature and assumptive. The entire first half was simply reciting statistics and facts that we are all too familiar with already. Like I mentioned previously, it's nothing new. In fact, it's weary and dull. It felt very much like a high school student desperately copy/pasting citations from Wikipedia to fulfill a word count limit.
I tell my students all the time, I want to hear what YOU think, not what the internet thinks.
Every other page was a constant interruption of thought to insert a definition or clarify what she meant. Rule number 1 in creative writing: Don't make the assumption that your reader is stupid. Say what you mean in any eloquent way you wish, and those who get it will "get it" and those who don't can go look it up themselves. Using way too many interruptions broke my interest and left me feeling frustrated that she felt the need to clarify things I already knew. Most of her literary references were fairly common and recognizable, yet she broke her poem's rhythm over and over just to "insert reference here just in case you didn't know what I was talking about." Put a footnote if you really want to educate your audience, but don't assume (as a 23 year old) that your readers won't have a clue what you're referring to.
Many of these poems felt like responses to a creative writing college class prompt and not a fresh original idea naturally inspired. Her use of words like "Zoombies" is cringe-worthy in an era we are still living through and comes off as out-of-touch and juvenile.
I wish I could like this, and went into it with relatively high hopes. Sad to see her publishers pushing for more content. I'd be interested in reading more natural work from her later in her career.
January 18, 2023
I’m not a poetry person, but this collection has some definite winners.
Here are the poems/lines that really stood out to me (in order of their appearance):
There were of course parts of this collection that I did not care for:
Here are the poems/lines that really stood out to me (in order of their appearance):
There were of course parts of this collection that I did not care for:
February 28, 2022
Call Us What We Carry is a beautiful book of poetry by Amanda Gorman that I will read again and again. While I am sure that I was not the only one, I was spellbound during the inauguration of President Joseph Biden on January 20, 2021, when a beautifully poised young woman came on to the stage in a lovely yellow coat with a striking red headband. She was our poet laureate Amanda Gorman and reciting her beautiful poem, The Hill We Climb. Gorman's striking poetry throughout this book is rife with alliteration, homonyms, and synonyms leaving bare the raw truths of our lives that will leave one in awe of how perceptive her poetry is.
This was a beautiful book that speaks to the history of our nation with a lot of emphasis on pandemics and civil rights, but at its heart are the truths that we all strive for in our efforts to build a better world as we are confronted with grief and loss.
"But why alliteration? Why the pulsing percussion, the string of syllables? It is the poet who pounds the past back into you. The poet transcends 'telling' or 'performing' a story & instead remembers it, touches, tastes, traps its vastness. Only now can Memory, previously marooned, find safe harbor within us. Feel all these tales crushing our famished mouth."
"Grief, like glass, can be both a mirror & a window, enabling us to look both in & out then & now & how. In other words, we become a window pain. Only somewhere in loss do we find the grace to gaze up & out of ourselves."
This was a beautiful book that speaks to the history of our nation with a lot of emphasis on pandemics and civil rights, but at its heart are the truths that we all strive for in our efforts to build a better world as we are confronted with grief and loss.
"How far Sisyphus pushes that rock Up its murky mound, As well as the route it rolls down again. A poem &n how it runs Through the body before leaving Us something slightly more than we were. Simply put, the rise & fall matter, Conjoined, not canceling. Expansion, not erasure. It is only then that we can understand How our distance from our worst selves Is Centuries & yet We have not been displaced. Yes. We have gone further than we've come.
Want to read
January 21, 2021AWESTRUCK CRITIQUE:
What a poem! What a performance!
Poem
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/20/po...
Performance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz4Yu...
Black Words Matter
["It Takes a Village
To Raise a Child"]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHhut...
PRO-VERSE
Angry Fix or Happy Repair?
[Owed to the Words of the Poet]
For me, Amanda Gorman's "The Hill We Climb"
Called to mind Allen Ginsberg's "Howl",
Only she wasn't looking for an angry fix,
But once she was woke and risen,
Ready, willing and able to share it,
She sought to raise this wounded world
Into a wondrous one,
By doing what is needed to repair it.
What a poem! What a performance!
Poem
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/20/po...
Performance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz4Yu...
Black Words Matter
["It Takes a Village
To Raise a Child"]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHhut...
PRO-VERSE
Angry Fix or Happy Repair?
[Owed to the Words of the Poet]
For me, Amanda Gorman's "The Hill We Climb"
Called to mind Allen Ginsberg's "Howl",
Only she wasn't looking for an angry fix,
But once she was woke and risen,
Ready, willing and able to share it,
She sought to raise this wounded world
Into a wondrous one,
By doing what is needed to repair it.
January 5, 2022
Every time I hear praises for Amanda Gorman, I wonder if I’m reading the same so-called “poems?”
The reviews glow about this tripe as if its “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock.” You’d think Gorman was the next T.S. Eliot or Alexander Pushkin or Sylvia Plath or Seamus Heaney. I LOVE poetry, so try to give it a chance. But when I see crap like “unprecedented & unpresidented,” I don’t get inspired to do anything but gag. I literally had to wash my mouth after reading: “This book is awake. This book is a wake.” That is garbage, verbal diarrhea, and not poetry.
Gorman’s “poetry” is juvenile at best. It’s like a slightly catchy little commercial jingle being hailed as an operatic masterpiece. I remember hearing better poetry in my 9th grade Honors English class. Please make it stop!
I’ve come to the conclusion that most of the people praising this junk don’t know or like real poetry. Gorman makes them feel smart and literary and that’s what they like. There’s no other explanation....
The reviews glow about this tripe as if its “The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock.” You’d think Gorman was the next T.S. Eliot or Alexander Pushkin or Sylvia Plath or Seamus Heaney. I LOVE poetry, so try to give it a chance. But when I see crap like “unprecedented & unpresidented,” I don’t get inspired to do anything but gag. I literally had to wash my mouth after reading: “This book is awake. This book is a wake.” That is garbage, verbal diarrhea, and not poetry.
Gorman’s “poetry” is juvenile at best. It’s like a slightly catchy little commercial jingle being hailed as an operatic masterpiece. I remember hearing better poetry in my 9th grade Honors English class. Please make it stop!
I’ve come to the conclusion that most of the people praising this junk don’t know or like real poetry. Gorman makes them feel smart and literary and that’s what they like. There’s no other explanation....
February 6, 2022
Oh goodness. I really wanted to like this collection from Gorman, but I just couldn’t.
It’s all written in a collective “we” about the pandemic, which removes all nuance from the perspective. It makes sweeping generalizations about how we all felt, when many of us may have had many different and conflicting feelings. It also reads to me a bit as hope porn—trying SO HARD to find lessons in the grief and pain of the last 2 years, in a way that doesn’t ring true (to me at least).
I nearly lost it when I got to the poem that is literally just a few lines from Hamilton 🤦🏼♀️
The themes are important but I found the meditations on them hollow. Lots of big, intellectual words to explore abstract concepts. It all felt impersonal and forced. There was also a poem shaped like a face mask.
I guess I just never wanted a pandemic poetry collection, lol. But to each their own.
It’s all written in a collective “we” about the pandemic, which removes all nuance from the perspective. It makes sweeping generalizations about how we all felt, when many of us may have had many different and conflicting feelings. It also reads to me a bit as hope porn—trying SO HARD to find lessons in the grief and pain of the last 2 years, in a way that doesn’t ring true (to me at least).
I nearly lost it when I got to the poem that is literally just a few lines from Hamilton 🤦🏼♀️
The themes are important but I found the meditations on them hollow. Lots of big, intellectual words to explore abstract concepts. It all felt impersonal and forced. There was also a poem shaped like a face mask.
I guess I just never wanted a pandemic poetry collection, lol. But to each their own.
January 25, 2022
Amanda Gorman's poems in this collection are very timely to our current moment of pandemic and racial inequality. At one point I thought it was too much but when you get half way in the book, Gorman starts to be more creative and experimental. She uses historical documents from a century ago to make poems and connects that time to our present moment. She does a great job with her use of images and different poem styles. It keeps you engaged and also convicted. She challenges you to think her poems are about one thing but they are about something totally different. Amazing for her first collection. I'm looking forward to what she writes next.
March 4, 2022
My friend gave me this book. She said she isn't a reader. I always find that hard to understand.
April 25, 2022
4.5 - WOW, totally in awe of this young woman's gift! I have heard her read her work before & knew it was moving, but was so blown away by both the poetry itself, as well as it's visual presentation! I also didn't realize how very, very current this collection is, with so much of it discussing the collective events of the last two years, but with call backs to earlier pandemics and other social issues. An quick read, but one that really made me think more about issues, highly recommend!
February 25, 2023
3.5 stars
I will preface this by saying I’m not a huge poetry person, but I try to go out of my comfort zone occasionally and read genres that I don't always read. Some of these poems were great. I’ve heard Amanda Gorman read her poetry live and she does an amazing job, but for some reason, it did not come across well narrating this audiobook. I usually love listening to books narrated by the author but I think that I would have enjoyed this more if I would have read it, the narration threw me off.
I will preface this by saying I’m not a huge poetry person, but I try to go out of my comfort zone occasionally and read genres that I don't always read. Some of these poems were great. I’ve heard Amanda Gorman read her poetry live and she does an amazing job, but for some reason, it did not come across well narrating this audiobook. I usually love listening to books narrated by the author but I think that I would have enjoyed this more if I would have read it, the narration threw me off.
Audio book source: Libby
Story Rating: 3.5 stars
Narrators: Amanda Gorman
Narration Rating: 2 stars
Genre: Poetry
Length: 3h 32m
January 22, 2022
Favorite lines from FUGUE:
There was another gap that choked us:
The simple gift of farewell.
Goodbye, by which we say to another—
Thanks for offering your life into mine.
By Goodbye, we truly mean:
Let us be able to say hello again.
Favorite lines from IN THE DEEP:
For a year our television was a lighthouse, blinking
Only in warning and never in warmth
Favorite lines from SURVEY:
Grief, like glass, can be both a mirror and a window, enabling us to look both in and out, then and now and how. In other words we become a window pain. Only somewhere in loss do we find the grace to gaze up and out of ourselves.
There was another gap that choked us:
The simple gift of farewell.
Goodbye, by which we say to another—
Thanks for offering your life into mine.
By Goodbye, we truly mean:
Let us be able to say hello again.
Favorite lines from IN THE DEEP:
For a year our television was a lighthouse, blinking
Only in warning and never in warmth
Favorite lines from SURVEY:
Grief, like glass, can be both a mirror and a window, enabling us to look both in and out, then and now and how. In other words we become a window pain. Only somewhere in loss do we find the grace to gaze up and out of ourselves.
June 21, 2023
For Juneteenth Day , I was fortunate to find a Ted Talk by Amanda Gorman. I Adore Her. To me She Speaks so Beautifully and with Such Grace. Her words inspire me. I am so glad she is part of our new generation. Stunning and Incredible 💗💗💗
“They Buried Us, But Did Not Know We Were Seeds”~That’s Poetry 🌸🪻🌷 🌺🌼🌱
I often refer back to this book, it’s incredible.
I often listen to her famous poem, The Hill We Climb. Every time I feel like things are too much, listening to her speak gives me Hope. It is Beautiful the way it changes my Feelings. Be Brave, We Together Can Do This 💗
“When Day Comes, we step out of the shade,
Aflame and Unafraid.
The new dawn blooms as we free it.
For there is always light,
If only we’re brave enough to see it.
If only we’re brave enough to be it.”
This is Our Future.
“They Buried Us, But Did Not Know We Were Seeds”~That’s Poetry 🌸🪻🌷 🌺🌼🌱
I often refer back to this book, it’s incredible.
I often listen to her famous poem, The Hill We Climb. Every time I feel like things are too much, listening to her speak gives me Hope. It is Beautiful the way it changes my Feelings. Be Brave, We Together Can Do This 💗
“When Day Comes, we step out of the shade,
Aflame and Unafraid.
The new dawn blooms as we free it.
For there is always light,
If only we’re brave enough to see it.
If only we’re brave enough to be it.”
This is Our Future.
December 9, 2021
I enjoyed some of the poems in this collection and others I found unbearably didactic. Gorman's style seems more geared towards spoken performance, which probably gives this collection a bit of a disadvantage. I liked many of the found poems, which makes sense because those are designed to be read on the page. It always makes me anxious when artists get famous at a young age (Gorman is 23) because that kind of scrutiny can be really damaging, so I hope that she had a long career and is able to change and grow creatively.
January 17, 2022
I admire Amanda Gorman's talent and I sincerely hope many young people start writing because of her. Having said that, I have to be honest to myself here and give 2.5 stars to her latest book.
I admit that I like traditional poetry better than freeform poetry. That makes it difficult for me to get into contemporary poems. I used to write poems (in Japanese) and loved reading poems both in English and Japanese. What I learned these years was that you describe "beauty" without using a word "beauty" or "beautiful". You have to carefully chose every word. Get rid of every unnecessary word, etc. Every time I read "One Art" by Elizabeth Bishop I become tearful even though I have read it more than 100 times. To me, poems are like that. It just grabs my heart.
Amanda's poems in this book are none of above. She wrote so many words such as "death" "love" "pain" but I didn't feel them. They failed to move me. Careless phrases like "The pain pulls us apart, Like lips about to speak" failed to give me a clear picture of what kind of image Amanda wanted to give us. She often states something like "That's what only words can do-- /Prod us toward something new / & in doing so, move us closer → together.", "Lost as we feel, there is no better/ Compass than compassion.", and these made me feel this book quite didactic. I wouldn't mind them if this book was collection of essays rather than poems.
There are also so many Covid pandemic poems. We are still in the midst of it, but these poems feel outdated.
I regard this book as an experiment of a young talented poet. She will one day look back and tell herself, "Oh I was so young...".
My Japanese review:
https://youshofanclub.com/2022/01/17/...
I admit that I like traditional poetry better than freeform poetry. That makes it difficult for me to get into contemporary poems. I used to write poems (in Japanese) and loved reading poems both in English and Japanese. What I learned these years was that you describe "beauty" without using a word "beauty" or "beautiful". You have to carefully chose every word. Get rid of every unnecessary word, etc. Every time I read "One Art" by Elizabeth Bishop I become tearful even though I have read it more than 100 times. To me, poems are like that. It just grabs my heart.
Amanda's poems in this book are none of above. She wrote so many words such as "death" "love" "pain" but I didn't feel them. They failed to move me. Careless phrases like "The pain pulls us apart, Like lips about to speak" failed to give me a clear picture of what kind of image Amanda wanted to give us. She often states something like "That's what only words can do-- /Prod us toward something new / & in doing so, move us closer → together.", "Lost as we feel, there is no better/ Compass than compassion.", and these made me feel this book quite didactic. I wouldn't mind them if this book was collection of essays rather than poems.
There are also so many Covid pandemic poems. We are still in the midst of it, but these poems feel outdated.
I regard this book as an experiment of a young talented poet. She will one day look back and tell herself, "Oh I was so young...".
My Japanese review:
https://youshofanclub.com/2022/01/17/...
January 26, 2022
Amanda Gorman is a genius. I have said and written here many times that I'm really not particularly fond of poetry. Maybe that was always because I hadn't seen recently poetry of the type that Ms Gorman creates. It looks at us as we are and as we might be. It is full of life and full of hope. It is beautiful.
April 7, 2023
Once more, poetry serves as a manifest of the power of words. Special mention to the pandemic poems, which I think are brilliantly written (actually, they all are, Gorman is amazing!)
December 12, 2023
Dec 9, 4am ~~ Wow. Review asap.
Dec 11, 5pm ~~ Okay, I give up. I am nearly speechless with admiration for this young poet. I cannot get my tongue untied to contribute anything worthwhile in the form of a proper review, so I will leave it at WOW. Someday I will reread and we will see if any words come to me then.
Dec 11, 5pm ~~ Okay, I give up. I am nearly speechless with admiration for this young poet. I cannot get my tongue untied to contribute anything worthwhile in the form of a proper review, so I will leave it at WOW. Someday I will reread and we will see if any words come to me then.
March 1, 2024
"Whoever said we never die in our dreams
Obviously has never been Black."
Amanda Gorman has captivated me yet again with poems about surviving the pandemic and being Black in America. Reaching back into the history of slavery and looking to the future with despair tempered by an unlikely yet resilient hope.
This collection was stunning and profoundly moving, blunt and honest, real and raw, and incredibly insightful.
"It's said that ignorance is bliss.
Ignorance is this: a vine that
sneaks up a tree, killing not by
poison, but by blocking out its
light."
Trigger/Content Warnings: racism, slavery, pandemic, police brutality, grief, death, violence, mass/school shootings, colonization
You can watch me review this book & all of the other 2022 Goodreads Choice Awards Winners here: https://youtu.be/fFKXJ1gsZA8
You can watch me talk about all the books I read in February as I set up my reading journal here: https://youtu.be/NY7bgSmoggM
You can find me on...
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PBB Book Club
Obviously has never been Black."
Amanda Gorman has captivated me yet again with poems about surviving the pandemic and being Black in America. Reaching back into the history of slavery and looking to the future with despair tempered by an unlikely yet resilient hope.
This collection was stunning and profoundly moving, blunt and honest, real and raw, and incredibly insightful.
"It's said that ignorance is bliss.
Ignorance is this: a vine that
sneaks up a tree, killing not by
poison, but by blocking out its
light."
Trigger/Content Warnings: racism, slavery, pandemic, police brutality, grief, death, violence, mass/school shootings, colonization
You can watch me review this book & all of the other 2022 Goodreads Choice Awards Winners here: https://youtu.be/fFKXJ1gsZA8
You can watch me talk about all the books I read in February as I set up my reading journal here: https://youtu.be/NY7bgSmoggM
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December 23, 2021Amanda Gorman's poetry in Call Us What We Carry exceeded my expectations. The book weaves together poems that reflect on our collective, and yet also unique, experiences as we navigate the year(s) of COVID - from March 2020 and forward - and also revisits history. Through her poetry, Gorman illustrates that we are not in truly “unprecedented times” as she ties the current state of (American) society to historical events such as the Essex disaster at sea in 1820, the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, the "Spanish" influenza in 1918, ongoing community issues such as AIDS, immigration, grief, and natural events like the behavior of animals in captivity and post memory.
I wasn't expecting to LEARN and FEEL so much through Gorman's poems. This book is recommended for adult and teen readers even if poetry is not your usual genre. -Diana F.
I wasn't expecting to LEARN and FEEL so much through Gorman's poems. This book is recommended for adult and teen readers even if poetry is not your usual genre. -Diana F.
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