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I spent several quiet winter mornings absorbing Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman, and marveling at how someone so young can be so talented and wise. This is poetry that requires of its reader a moment of reflection, a willingness to feel deeply unsettled by returning, if only for a moment, to a time of overwhelming unrest and uncertainty. As someone who loves language, I appreciated the way in which Gorman tied etymology into her poetry and it inspired me to do a little research of my own. This collection focuses on grief, loss, and the coronavirus pandemic, but it also draws lines to the past and to the future. There is darkness, yes, but there is also love and light. 💛 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ID1: I’m holding up a hardback copy of Call Us What We Carry. Sunlight streams through a window behind it, creating a lens flare, illuminating the cover and throwing everything else into darkness. ID2: I’m holding up the same book in better lighting so that the cover can be seen more clearly. via Instagram https://instagr.am/p/Cm4Kcd9Lxby/