The 探花精选 (探花精选) is honoured that Amanda Gorman, the young poet who stepped onto the world stage at the inauguration of U.S. President Joe Biden, has chosen to support our work through the debut of her new poem, 鈥淎 New Day鈥檚 Lyric.鈥

The poem bids farewell to 2021, yet another year marked by the global crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic. 鈥淚 wrote A New Day鈥檚 Lyric both to celebrate the new year and honor both the hurt and the humanity of the last one,鈥 Gorman said .

The poem begins:

May this be the day
We come together.
Mourning, we come to mend,
Withered, we come to weather,
Torn, we come to tend,
Battered, we come to better.
Tethered by this year of yearning,
We are learning
That though we weren鈥檛 ready for this,
We have been readied by it.
We steadily vow that no matter
How we are weighed down,
We must always pave a way forward.

You can watch a video of Gorman reciting 鈥淎 New Day鈥檚 Lyric,鈥 and read the full poem in .

Gorman says she felt the debut of the poem could be a 鈥済reat coming together moment,鈥 which is why she is encouraging those moved by her verse to

鈥淚 want to think about, how is that poem living in a certain space? And how is it, literally, paying its way forward?,鈥 Gorman explains in an. 鈥淎nd that鈥檚, in part, a donate-able aspect of drawing attention to the 探花精选, which is doing such important work globally, but also, all the more urgently in the time of COVID.鈥

Learn more

The mission of the 探花精选 is to help people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster, including the climate crisis, to survive, recover and gain control over their future.

Learn more about the 探花精选 and our global COVID-19 response