Happy New Year!
I hope that the break gave you time to relax, reset, and refocus. As I was reflecting over break I was excited to look back and see what we have done for far this year and became excited for the second part of the year. As I was scrolling through Facebook (OK I just dated myself; but to be fair, it was also on Instagram), I found this poem that was written to “celebrate the new year and honor the hurt & the humanity of the last one”. The author, Amanda Gorman, better known for her poem “The Hill We Climb”, was a student with an auditory processing disorder as well as a speech language impairment. While I am not one that typically reads poetry, I did find that this hopeful message got to me; as I hope it does to you.
New Day’s Lyric’
May this be the day
We come together.
Mourning, we come to mend,
Withered, we come to weather,
Torn, we come to tend,
Battered, we come to better.
Tethered by this year of yearning,
We are learning
That though we weren't ready for this,
We have been readied by it.
We steadily vow that no matter
How we are weighed down,
We must always pave a way forward.
This hope is our door, our portal.
Even if we never get back to normal,
Someday we can venture beyond it,
To leave the known and take the first steps.
So let us not return to what was normal,
But reach toward what is next.
What was cursed, we will cure.
What was plagued, we will prove pure.
Where we tend to argue, we will try to agree,
Those fortunes we forswore, now the future we foresee,
Where we weren't aware, we're now awake;
Those moments we missed
Are now these moments we make,
The moments we meet,
And our hearts, once all together beaten,
Now all together beat.
Come, look up with kindness yet,
For even solace can be sourced from sorrow.
We remember, not just for the sake of yesterday,
But to take on tomorrow.
We heed this old spirit,
In a new day's lyric,
In our hearts, we hear it:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne.
Be bold, sang Time this year,
Be bold, sang Time,
For when you honor yesterday,
Tomorrow ye will find.
Know what we've fought
Need not be forgot nor for none.
It defines us, binds us as one,
Come over, join this day just begun.
For wherever we come together,
We will forever overcome.
By Amanda Gorman
Amanda Gorman recited this poem and stated, "Even if we never get back to normal, someday we can venture beyond it, to leave the known and take the first steps. So let us not return to what was normal, but reach toward what is next."
Here’s to reaching towards what is next this semester!!
