The Weaver Reads reviewed Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman
Goodreads Review of Call Us What We Carry
4 stars
I'm not sure that everything in here is poetry, but the writing is good. If I can be completely honest, I was pleasantly surprised. I fully get why Gorman was appointed US Youth Poet Laureate. These writings are chock-filled with inventive creation; so much of it repurposes old material to new ends and I am fully in support of it. In fact, I can't wait to see what else she puts out in the future.
It's really interesting to reflect on Covid and the Black Lives Matter with Gorman. Covid managed to somehow become a blank spot in my mind. Even though it consumed me (and most of the world's population) for years, I've now managed to totally forget it until it was pulled back up to the surface through these writings. In this way, I understand how the Spanish Flu was forgotten too. I suppose it was just so …
I'm not sure that everything in here is poetry, but the writing is good. If I can be completely honest, I was pleasantly surprised. I fully get why Gorman was appointed US Youth Poet Laureate. These writings are chock-filled with inventive creation; so much of it repurposes old material to new ends and I am fully in support of it. In fact, I can't wait to see what else she puts out in the future.
It's really interesting to reflect on Covid and the Black Lives Matter with Gorman. Covid managed to somehow become a blank spot in my mind. Even though it consumed me (and most of the world's population) for years, I've now managed to totally forget it until it was pulled back up to the surface through these writings. In this way, I understand how the Spanish Flu was forgotten too. I suppose it was just so traumatic a period that we blot it out--I didn't lose anyone I know to the disease, but the isolation was a killer. Meanwhile, Black Lives Matter is just as necessary now as it has ever been.
