There’s an old political saw: You campaign in poetry and govern in prose.
That took on a more literal meaning Wednesday night as Amanda Gorman, the closest thing this country has to a celebrity poet, took the stage at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
The former youth poet laureate of Los Angeles, who now holds that position at the national level, wrote a poem for the occasion. The 26-year-old Gorman gained widespread attention in 2021, when she became the youngest inaugural poet in the nation’s history and read “The Hill We Climb” at the inauguration of President Biden.
Her newest poem, “A Fight for Our Freedoms,” is about “a race that tests if this country / we cherish shall perish from this Earth, / And if our Earth shall perish from this country.”
Gorman did not deliver a speech. She only read the poem, and her recitation was interrupted at times by applause.
The poem attempts to reclaim words such as “freedom,” “liberty” and “patriot,” part of a vision of pluralism and empathy, instead of the “America first” message promulgated by former President Trump.
An excerpt:
We redeem this sacred scene, ready for our journey from it.
Together, we must birth this early republic
And achieve an unearthly summit.
Let us not just believe in the American dream
Let us be worthy of it.
Gorman takes the stage at the DNC.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)