I’m German. I’ve never watched an inauguration of an American president. The one of today’s President Joe Biden was no exception even though I was hoping for something better than what had come before… (“It seems to me that I have been dreaming a horrid dream for four years, and now the nightmare is gone.”)
Amanda Gorman’s amazing poem hit the German news very quickly, though, and I got curious and looked it up, watched Gorman perform it at the inauguration. It hit me unexpectedly hard; so hard, in fact, I cried.
Her presentation was so powerful, emotional, touching and uplifting; representative – to me – of all that is right and just about the United States.
Gorman envisions a country “committed To all cultures, colors, characters, And conditions of man” and while, of course, she primarily addresses the USA, she also spoke to the world and of the world.
If we, the peoples of the world, made into reality in our countries what Gorman wishes for her own one, if we truly and honestly, sought “harm to none, and harmony for all” – regardless of gender, skin colour, sexual orientation, etc. – then, yes, then “We will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one.”
Today, I was finally able to read the poem in its own ebook while simultaneously watching Gorman’s recitation which lent the experience further depth. Try for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz4Yu…
