Call number
J 811 G
Collection
Publication
Viking Books (2021), 240 pages
Description
Fiction. Poetry. HTML:The instant #1 New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestseller The breakout poetry collection by #1 New York Times bestselling author and presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman Formerly titled The Hill We Climb and Other Poems, the luminous poetry collection by #1 New York Times bestselling author and presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman captures a shipwrecked moment in time and transforms it into a lyric of hope and healing. In Call Us What We Carry, Gorman explores history, language, identity, and erasure through an imaginative and intimate collage. Harnessing the collective grief of a global pandemic, this beautifully designed volume features poems in many inventive styles and structures and shines a light on a moment of reckoning. Call Us What We Carry reveals that Gorman has become our messenger from the past, our voice for the future. .… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member deldevries
An excellent collection. Capped with the poem that made the day (Inauguration Day 1/20/2021) The Hill We Climb.
LibraryThing member JBD1
Gorman has managed to capture these last two years in lively, lyrical, provocative poems. I look forward with great anticipation to whatever she comes up with next.
LibraryThing member Doondeck
Wondrous words from this young lady. So wise and insightful. Some of the poems took some work and need to be revisited but in its entirety, this is a magnum opus.
LibraryThing member bookworm12
I listened to the audiobook and hearing her read her work was powerful. I listen to it slowly, just a few poems at a time to savor it. She did a beautiful job paralleling our current pandemic and political unrest with similar times throughout history. I love her word play.
“It is east to harp,
“Even now handshakes and hugs are like gifts, something we are shocked to grant, be granted.”
“It is east to harp,
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harder to hope.”“Even now handshakes and hugs are like gifts, something we are shocked to grant, be granted.”
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LibraryThing member scottjpearson
This review is less of a recapitulation of this work and more of a persuasive piece for you to buy and read it. Through her words, Gorman shows us what it means to be an American. Through her experiences – unabashedly black, unabashedly young, and unabashedly colored by the COVID pandemic – she
She organizes her poems as if they played a part in a religious service or a piece of instrumental jazz. Contents include thematic sections like: Requiem, What a Piece of Wreck Is Man, Earth Eyes, Memoria, Atonement, Fury & Faith, and Resolution. Like any good poetess, she shows us our own souls, whether we are citizens of the world or citizens of America. These words contain potential to elevate our – your and my – collective rhetoric.
Each word is carefully chosen and dripping with meaning. She provides historical references to the American experience while reminding us that this American experience and aspiration is unfinished. She documents the recent pandemic while reminding us of pandemics past. She tells us of her “blackness” while reminding readers of their own uniqueness and our common humanity.
On January 20, 2021, Gorman read “The Hill We Climb” at the inauguration of Joe Biden to the US Presidency. That work closes this book. Just as when she read it in front of the Capitol, tears welled up in my eyes as I read it now. This entire collection is worthy of that performance and shows why Dr. Jill Biden recommended her to the inaugural committee to become the youngest person to recite an inaugural poem. Gorman’s words contain power to heal and to bring insight. Whether you are American or just a citizen of humanity, you ought to read them because they will inspire you.
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weaves together a script that is unabashedly American and recalls moments in our history to point the way forward.She organizes her poems as if they played a part in a religious service or a piece of instrumental jazz. Contents include thematic sections like: Requiem, What a Piece of Wreck Is Man, Earth Eyes, Memoria, Atonement, Fury & Faith, and Resolution. Like any good poetess, she shows us our own souls, whether we are citizens of the world or citizens of America. These words contain potential to elevate our – your and my – collective rhetoric.
Each word is carefully chosen and dripping with meaning. She provides historical references to the American experience while reminding us that this American experience and aspiration is unfinished. She documents the recent pandemic while reminding us of pandemics past. She tells us of her “blackness” while reminding readers of their own uniqueness and our common humanity.
On January 20, 2021, Gorman read “The Hill We Climb” at the inauguration of Joe Biden to the US Presidency. That work closes this book. Just as when she read it in front of the Capitol, tears welled up in my eyes as I read it now. This entire collection is worthy of that performance and shows why Dr. Jill Biden recommended her to the inaugural committee to become the youngest person to recite an inaugural poem. Gorman’s words contain power to heal and to bring insight. Whether you are American or just a citizen of humanity, you ought to read them because they will inspire you.
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LibraryThing member kslade
Mostly quite good poetry. Some like the inauguration poem are great, but others not so much. She's good with wordplay. Pandemic, valuing people, environment, etc. are her themes. I'm not an expert though, but I know what I like. She is quite unique.
LibraryThing member viviennestrauss
My new favorite way to truly absorb poetry? Alternately reading the author's words and then listening to them read them aloud to me (preferably by the author). This book is so full of despair and hope, joy and pain, the world is a better place with Ms. Gorman in it- the true Poet Laureate of the
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United States of America. Show Less
LibraryThing member greeniezona
After watching Biden's inauguration, it was inevitable that I would need to own this book as soon as I knew that it would exist.
Saying that I prefer to watch Gorman perform over reading these myself is almost a non-statement, in that the vast majority of poetry is better read aloud, but Gorman is
This is a worthy collection that continues to explore many of the themes from "The Hill We Climb." My favorite lines are closing of "The Unordinary World," near the end of the collection:
Who are we, if not
What we make of the dark.
Recommended for those needing some patriotic optimism that still engages with the difficult truths of this nation's history.
Saying that I prefer to watch Gorman perform over reading these myself is almost a non-statement, in that the vast majority of poetry is better read aloud, but Gorman is
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also a particularly magical performer.This is a worthy collection that continues to explore many of the themes from "The Hill We Climb." My favorite lines are closing of "The Unordinary World," near the end of the collection:
Who are we, if not
What we make of the dark.
Recommended for those needing some patriotic optimism that still engages with the difficult truths of this nation's history.
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Awards
Kids' Book Choice Awards (Finalist — 2022)
Pages
240
ISBN
0593465067 / 9780593465066