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“I wanted to continue to participate in that tradition of hope-making in every single poem that I wrote,” says Amanda Gorman about frequently listening to Maya Angelou’s inaugural poem “On the Pulse of Morning” in this conversation with Oprah Winfrey for Apple TV Plus.
“Lift up your eyes upon / This day breaking for you. / Give birth again / To the dream,” reads Maya Angelou from her poem “On the Pulse of the Morning” for the 1993 presidential inauguration of Bill Clinton.
“Poetry is 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.” In this PBS NewsHour interview, Amanda Gorman speaks with Jeffrey Brown about her love of poetry and the writing process for her poem for this year’s presidential inauguration. Gorman is the nation’s first youth poet laureate and won a Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award from Poets & Writers in 2020.
“Praise song for struggle, praise song for the day.” In this video for “Incredible Bridges: Poets Creating Community,” a project developed by the Academy of American Poets in partnership with EDSITEment, Elizabeth Alexander reads “Praise Song for the Day,” a poem commissioned for the first inauguration of president Barack Obama.
