Amanda Gorman’s Poem ‘Smoldering Dawn’
A poem written by Amanda Gorman in the wake of the widlfires.
Amanda Gorman is the youngest presidential inaugural poet in U.S. history, an award-winning writer, and cum laude graduate of Harvard University. Her books Change Sings, Call Us What We Carry, and Something Someday each debuted at number one on The New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestsellers lists. Her home in Pacific Palisades was damaged in the fires. She wrote this poem during the fires to process her fears and raise funds for the California Fire Foundation.
Danny Williams
Smoldering Dawn
by Amanda Gorman
All our angels have gone;
This smoldering dawn, we soldier on;
We’ve proved ourselves strong;
Not from how badly we’ve burned;
But how bravely we bond.
Apocalypse does not mean ruin, but revelation;
In devastation, this infernus has injured us,
But it cannot endure us.
Even in the surreal, we do not surrender.
We emerge from the embers.
The hardest part
Is not disaster, but the after
Scorched earth is where the heart hurts;
What we restore first,
Where we start the work.
Today, we mourn,
Tomorrow reborn;
We end the burning,
Befriend the hurting,
Mend those who face the flame.
We reclaim our city’s name;
A revelation that only this place tells:
To find our angels, all we need do
Is look within ourselves.
Poetry in Sunset: A Longstanding Tradition
This isn’t the first time we’ve published a poem immediately following a disaster. Sunset’s Emergency Edition published immediately in the wake of the San Francisco 1906 earthquake closed with Charles K. Field’s powerful poem “The Choice,” a rallying cry for the citizens of San Francisco to rise to the challenge with courage, altruism, and selflessness. Field went on to become editor-in-chief of the magazine in 1910. See his poem below.
Read the Current Issue Here!
Get one year of Sunset—and all kinds of bonuses—for just $29.95. Subscribe now!