Last summer, Amanda Gorman, our America’s inaugural National Youth Poet Laureate, was relatively unknown. At the time, she penned a poem for United Way and Truist titled “United Way,” an inspirational message of unity in the challenging months of COVID and rising racial awareness.
What a difference a half year makes. The campaign has enjoyed a second wave of interest since Gorman’s remarkable presentation at President Biden’s inauguration, and is worth sharing again.
Read her poem below and you can see it on YouTube.
UNITED WAY
by Amanda Gorman
It’s hard to hope, hard to cope with crisis
While we might be all alone, we’ve never been more tightly tethered
Because we will only weather this unknown together
So we get to work
We mend, we don’t break even when we bend
Somewhere, another mom pays her bills
Somewhere, another child eats his fill
We are the world’s neighbors
Making our communities brighter, greater
Fighting fore every person in the neighborhood
We, becoming of the common good
So there to care
To be hope-sighted, never divided
For when we live to give, we always live united