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Let each dawn find us courageous, brought closer, heeding the lights before the fight is over.

Amanda Gorman

My mom wanted to make sure I was prepared to grow up with Black skin in America.
AMANDA GORMAN

Black Grow Up Mom Myself Preparation Skin
One of my delays was in speech and speech pronunciation, and also the auditory processing issue just means I really struggle as an auditory learner.
AMANDA GORMAN

Issues Learning Myself Oneself Struggle
Poetry is interesting because not everyone is going to become a great poet, but anyone can be, and anyone can enjoy poetry, and it’s this openness, this accessibility of poetry that makes it the language of people.
AMANDA GORMAN

Enjoyment Greatness Language Poet Poetry
That’s kind of the challenging thing about writing an inaugural poem. You’re speaking to everyone, but you don’t also want to speak for everyone.
AMANDA GORMAN

Challenge Kind Talk Yourself
Writing wasn’t just a form of expression. It was a form of pathology by embarking on spoken word over and over and over again and reciting my poems.
AMANDA GORMAN

Expression Myself Poem Word Writing
I don’t want it to be something that becomes a cage, where to be a successful Black girl, you have to be Amanda Gorman and go to Harvard. I want someone to eventually disrupt the model I have established.
AMANDA GORMAN

Black Establishment Girl Myself Success
When you are learning through poetry how to speak English, it lends to a great understanding of sound, of pitch, of pronunciation, so I think of my speech impediment not as a weakness or a disability, but as one of my greatest strengths.
AMANDA GORMAN

Greatness Learning Poetry Sound Strength Thinking Understand Weakness Yourself
Poetry is – it’s an art form, but, to me, it’s also a weapon, it’s also an instrument. It’s the ability to make ideas that have been known, felt and said. And that’s a real, I think, type of duty for the poet.
AMANDA GORMAN

Ability Art Ideas Poet Poetry Reality Thinking Weapon
I try to approach reading in front of millions of people as I would reading in somebody’s living room.
AMANDA GORMAN

Myself People Performance Reading
As a young black woman, I notice at times in the mainstream media framing of the ‘me too’ movement you see a white female face or a white male face, and that type of questioning and interrogation needs to happen.
AMANDA GORMAN

Black Face Man Need White Woman Young
See the line where the sky meets the sea.
AMANDA GORMAN

Nature Sea See Sky
Through poetry we shall catch the conscience of a nation.
AMANDA GORMAN

Nation Poetry
What contributed to my writing early on is how my mom encouraged it. She kept the TV off because she wanted my siblings and I to be engaged and active. So we made forts, put on plays, musicals, and I wrote like crazy.
AMANDA GORMAN

Activity Crazy Encouragement Family Mom Myself Writing
I think it made me all that much stronger of a writer when you have to teach yourself how to say words from scratch.
AMANDA GORMAN

Myself Strong Teaching Thinking Word Writing Yourself
One of the most rewarding moments of my career is when I’m speaking to a child who tells me they have the same speech impediment that I had to overcome and that they’re going to keep writing or sharing their voice after hearing my story.
AMANDA GORMAN

Career Moments Myself Oneself Reward Story Voice Writing
I was writing since I can remember – I just didn’t know it was poetry yet, or that writing could be a career.
AMANDA GORMAN

Career Myself Poetry Remember Writing
I think we run into issues when our online brands are not rooted in who we are, and I think we need to have explicit discussions with ourselves about who we want to be, what we want to represent, and how we want to express that.
AMANDA GORMAN

Expression Issues Myself Need Ourselves Run Thinking
Poetry is the lens we use to interrogate the history we stand on and the future we stand for.
AMANDA GORMAN

Future History Poetry
The fight isn’t over – it’s just begun. It’s time to suit up for a battle that might determine the war.
AMANDA GORMAN

Battle Beginning Determination Fight Time War
Truth is to act out of the best of ourselves.
AMANDA GORMAN

Act Best Ourselves Truth
But as for the future, I foresee a world which is more creative, more open, more loving, more ecologically friendly, more honest about its history and progress, and I think a lot of those contributions will be made by young people.
AMANDA GORMAN

Creation Friendship Future History Honesty Love People Thinking Young
My Instagram doesn’t cover my insecurities, my lack of self-confidence, that week I spent crying, there’s a question of whether I should be sharing that online.
AMANDA GORMAN

Confidence Insecurity Internet Myself Social Media
To hone my voice, I read everything, from books to cereal boxes, three times: once for fun, the second time to learn something new about the writing craft, and the third time was to improve that piece.
AMANDA GORMAN

Books Improvement Learning Myself Pieces Reading Time Voice Writing
Let each dawn find us courageous, brought closer, heeding the lights before the fight is over.
AMANDA GORMAN

Courage Fight Inspirational Light Morning
If a woman doesn’t give herself permission, who will?
AMANDA GORMAN

Herself Willing Woman
What a day. What a life. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you
AMANDA GORMAN

Gratitude Life Thankful
Poetry has never been the language of barriers, it’s always been the language of bridges.
AMANDA GORMAN

Deep Language Perspective Poetry

Let each dawn find us courageous, brought closer, heeding the lights before the fight is over.

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Let each dawn find us courageous, brought closer, heeding the lights before the fight is over.

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