Week 34: Poetic and Just
“poetic, and just”
Collage, cut and torn New Yorker Magazine paper, 9" x 12"
I can’t help myself. I’m fan-arting.
I mean, you saw her, right? You heard her poem? Amanda Gorman, arguably, stole the inauguration show.
I don’t think my words about her could do her justice. I’ll just say—she and her words fill me with hope and joy and light. She is a testament to the power of art and artists.
I had been thinking about her this week, re-reading her poem, looking her up online, watching interviews, and remembering what a stunning visual her profile was during her reading.
Then in this week’s New Yorker issue (The Journeys Issue from April 2014), I read the words “poetic, and just.” I immediately thought of a line from Amanda’s “The Hill We Climb”:
“We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace, and the norms and notions of what ‘just’ is isn’t always justice.”
I was overjoyed to have found a title that gave me an excuse to recreate Amanda’s profile.
If you have been keeping up with my posts (thank you!!), it won’t surprise you to know that I was especially moved by her final lines:
“For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it.
If only we’re brave enough to be it.”
In my own daily commitment to anti-racism, I pray for my blind spots to be revealed, to have the courage and grace to see them and to transform them. I am asking for bravery. To risk being uncomfortable. To risk making mistakes. To risk not being liked. To risk losing “friends.”
There’s really no other choice. I mean, there is. But why would I choose not to be the Light? The price for staying comfortable is too high.
I am grateful for Amanda for touching so many hearts. And for inspiring me this week—and, I imagine, for years to come.
“Getting There” by Ivan Brunetti
The New Yorker, The Journeys Issue, April 21, 2014
That sound you hear is me still laughing at
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