How Amanda Gorman became the voice for a new era

The youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history, Amanda Gorman, read "The Hill We Climb," which she had finished after the riot at the Capitol two weeks ago. "I'm not going to in any way gloss over what we've seen," she said.

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Amanda Gorman, the nation's first ever youth poet laureate, confronted Americans Wednesday and challenged them to unify and "leave behind a country better than the one we were left" as she delivered "The Hill We Climb."

"I had this huge thing, probably one of the most important things I'll ever do in my career," she said in an interview. "It was like, if I try to climb this mountain all at once, I'm just going to pass out."

She wrote a few lines a day and was just halfway though the poem on January 6, when pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol, holding weapons and Confederate flags. She stayed awake though the night and completed the poem, adding verses about the horrific scene that unfolded that day:

We've seen a force that would shatter our nation than share it, Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy. And this effort very nearly succeeded.

But while democracy can be periodically delayed,

It can never be permanently defeated.

At the same place that the apocalyptic scene unfolded just two weeks ago, Gorman recited the poem, her voice full of emotion and power. She described her background as a "skinny Black girl, descended from slaves and a raised by a single mother," who can dream of being president one day, "only to find herself reciting for one." She spoke about the indescribable loss that the country has faced.

When the day comes, we ask ourselves:

Where can we find light

In this never-ending shade?

The loss we carry, a sea we must wade.

Gorman said enjoyed writing poetry at a young age. She was raised in Los Angeles, where her mother taught middle school. At 16 years old, she was named the Youth Poet Laureate of Los Angeles. Just a few years later while studying sociology at Harvard University, she was given the title of National Youth Poet Laureate, the first person to hold the position.

Gorman, who regularly uses content from current political events in her work, spoke passionately Wednesday about the need for social change: We learned that quiet isn't always peace, and the norms and notions of what 'just is' isn't always justice."