I adored Amanda Gorman’s The Hill We Climb – I thought she was such a powerful speaker at President Biden’s inauguration and I have re-read that poem on a few occasions. I was excited to pick up Call Us What We Carry, but I struggled with this book of poetry.
Not that the poetry was bad – Gorman is still a powerful writer – but it is written during and touches on the pandemic and the feelings of loneliness and isolation that many of us were experiencing during those months of 2020 and 2021.
This was a topic she hit on many times, over and over again; and I found myself picking this up and reading a few poems before having to set it back down again from the weight of the content.
But that is the beauty of poetry, isn’t it? It’s doesn’t have to be read all at once and we can enjoy it in small doses – come back to it when our hearts are open to the words again.
The last few poems were more uplifting – more hopeful. How the early poems felt like those early days of the pandemic, the later poems reminded me of those hopeful days when a vaccine was available and we all started to venture out of our homes and see each other again.
Leann Reads Books 