Chapin City Blues

The closest we get to time travel
Is our fears softening,

Our hurts unclenching,
As we become more akin

To kin, as we return
To who we were

Before we actually were
Anything to anyone—

Amanda Gorman became the youngest inaugural poet in US history when she recited her poem, “The Hill We Climb,” during the inauguration ceremony of President Joe Biden in 2021. She was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. In 2017, Urban Word, a national youth organization literary arts organization, appointed her as the first National Youth Poet Laureate. She is a cum laude graduate from Harvard University, where she majored in sociology. She is the author of the children’s book, Change Sings (Viking Books for Young Readers, 2021) and Call Us What We Carry: Poems (Viking, 2021), where you can read this poem in its entirety.