Shelter in Poems with Inaugural Poet Amanda Gorman, Announcing the Winners of the Inaugural Poem Contest for Students, and more

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January 19, 2021

Announcing the Winners of the Inaugural Poem Contest for Students


The Academy is pleased to announce the winners of the Inaugural Poem Contest for Students. From nearly one thousand submissions, the three winners were chosen by Presidential Inaugural Poet and the Academy’s Education Ambassador Richard Blanco. Congratulations to Hallie Knight, age 17, from Jacksonville, Florida, whose poem, “To Rebuild” won first place; Mina King, age 17, from Shreveport, Louisiana, whose poem, “In Pursuit of Dawn” won second place; and Gabrielle Marshall, age 12, from Richmond, Virginia, whose poem, “The Power of Hope Today” won third place. 

In This Place (An American Lyric)


Amanda Gorman

An original poem written for the inaugural reading of Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith at the Library of Congress.

There’s a poem in this place—
in the footfalls in the halls
in the quiet beat of the seats.
It is here, at the curtain of day,
where America writes a lyric
you must whisper to say.

There’s a poem in this place—
in the heavy grace,
the lined face of this noble building,
collections burned and reborn twice.

There’s a poem in Boston’s Copley Square
where protest chants
tear through the air
like sheets of rain,
where love of the many
swallows hatred of the few.

There’s a poem in Charlottesville
where tiki torches string a ring of flame
tight round the wrist of night
where men so white they gleam blue—
seem like statues
where men heap that long wax burning
ever higher
where Heather Heyer
blooms forever in a meadow of resistance.

There’s a poem in the great sleeping giant
of Lake Michigan, defiantly raising
its big blue head to Milwaukee and Chicago—
a poem begun long ago, blazed into frozen soil,
strutting upward and aglow.

There’s a poem in Florida, in East Texas
where streets swell into a nexus
of rivers, cows afloat like mottled buoys in the brown,
where courage is now so common
that 23-year-old Jesus Contreras rescues people from floodwaters.

There’s a poem in Los Angeles
yawning wide as the Pacific tide
where a single mother swelters
in a windowless classroom, teaching
black and brown students in Watts
to spell out their thoughts
so her daughter might write
this poem for you.             

There's a lyric in California
where thousands of students march for blocks,
undocumented and unafraid;
where my friend Rosa finds the power to blossom
in deadlock, her spirit the bedrock of her community.
She knows hope is like a stubborn
ship gripping a dock,
a truth: that you can’t stop a dreamer
or knock down a dream.         

How could this not be her city
su nación
our country
our America,
our American lyric to write—
a poem by the people, the poor,
the Protestant, the Muslim, the Jew,
the native, the immigrant,
the black, the brown, the blind, the brave,
the undocumented and undeterred,
the woman, the man, the nonbinary,
the white, the trans,
the ally to all of the above
and more?

Tyrants fear the poet.
Now that we know it
we can’t blow it.
We owe it
to show it
not slow it
although it
hurts to sew it
when the world
skirts below it.       

Hope—
we must bestow it
like a wick in the poet
so it can grow, lit,
bringing with it
stories to rewrite—
the story of a Texas city depleted but not defeated
a history written that need not be repeated
a nation composed but not yet completed.

There’s a poem in this place—
a poem in America
a poet in every American
who rewrites this nation, who tells
a story worthy of being told on this minnow of an earth
to breathe hope into a palimpsest of time—
a poet in every American
who sees that our poem penned
doesn’t mean our poem’s end.

There’s a place where this poem dwells—
it is here, it is now, in the yellow song of dawn’s bell
where we write an American lyric
we are just beginning to tell.
 

Copyright © 2017 by Amanda Gorman. Reprinted from Split This Rock's The Quarry: A Social Justice Database.
Amanda Gorman
Amanda Gorman was raised in Los Angeles, California. She is the author of The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough (Penmanship Books, 2015). In 2017, Gorman was named the first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate of the United States. Gorman was selected to read at President-Elect Joe Biden’s Inauguration tomorrow, January 20, 2021. Read more about Inaugural Poems in History

Check out our #PoetryNearYou Pick of the Week: Not Just Another Day Off 

Not Just Another Day Off is the Folger Shakespeare Library’s annual poetic celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Poets Camonghne Felix, Julian Randall, and Joseph Ross are joined by actors Sara Barker, Fatima Quander, and James Johnson. The event features contemporary poetry alongside historical speeches from Dr. King, Gandhi, Frederick Douglass, Malcolm X, James Baldwin, and others. The recording will be available until Thursday, January 21.

Watch Inaugural Poet Amanda Gorman read Elizabeth Alexander's “Praise Song for the Day,” which Elizabeth read during the Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama. 

2021 Poets Laureate Fellowships 

Submissions are being accepted for the 2021 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowships. The $50,000 fellowships will honor Poets Laureate of states, cities, counties, U.S. territories, or Tribal nations, enabling them to undertake impactful and innovative projects that will engage their fellow residents and address important issues with poetry. The fellowship program, made possible by a generous gift from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is now in its third year.

Rajiv Mohabir

Awards for Books in Translation

The Academy of American Poets is accepting submissions for the Ambroggio Prize, given to a book-length poetry manuscript originally written in Spanish and with an English translation; the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award, recognizing a poetry collection translated from any language into English and published in the previous calendar year; and the Raiziss/de Palchi Fellowship, given for the translation into English of a significant work of modern Italian poetry. Submissions are open through February 15, 2021.

Opportunities for Poets

Photo of Fatimah Asghar

What Fatimah Asghar is Currently Reading

“For poetry, Etel Adnan’s Night (Nightboat Books, 2016) and Hayan Charara’s The Alchemist’s Diary (Hanging Loose Press, 2001). I just read this book on community called How We Show Up (Hachette Go, 2020), which really resonated with me a lot. It was an incredible exploration of love and community, which are things that I feel very strongly about.”

Fatimah Asghar, author of If They Come For Us (One World/ Random House, 2018), and Poem-a-Day Guest Editor for the month of January. 

Last Week’s Poem-a-Day  


Revisit last week’s Poem-a-Day selections with us on Poets.org:

January 10: “Silence” by Babette Deutsch
January 11: “Undoing” by Khadijah Queen
January 12: “poem where no one is deported” by José Olivarez
January 13: “STILL UNBUTTONED & UNBOTHERED: On Imagining That Freedom Probably Feels Like Getting the Itis” by Jacqui Germain
January 14: “After Touching You, I Think of Narcissus Drowning” by Leila Chatti
January 15: “Tomorrow is a Place” by Sanna Wani
January 16: “Evadne” by H. D.
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