Memorial - Amanda Gorman

When we tell a story, We are living Memory.

Poetry will save us all! So says Little Truth’s Studio, and I agree. A Instagram friend of mine shared their work with me on IG, and I immediately bought a couple of these delightful stickers.

And that’s all the intro you’re going to get for this one.

—

Memorial
by Amanda Gorman in Call Us What We Cary

When we tell a story,

We are living

Memory.

In ancient Greece, the Muses, the dainty-footed daughters
of Memory, were thought to inspire artists. It isn’t knowing,
but remembering, that makes us create. This would explain
why so much great art arises from trauma, nostalgia, or
testimony.

But why alliteration?
Why the pulsing percussion, the string of syllables?
It is the poet who pounds the past back into you.

The poet transcends “telling” or “performing” a story &
instead remembers it, touches, tastes, traps its vastness.

Only now can Memory, previously marooned, find safe
harbor within us.
Feel all the tales crushing our famished mouth.

—

I’d love to hear from you. I want to know what you think. Did you like this poem? Did any part of it resonate with you? Let me know.