"Somehow we've weathered and witnessed / A nation that isn't broken / But simply unfinished," Gorman observes. "We are striving to forge a union with purpose / To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man," she adds later. Notably, Gorman's poem mirrors Baldwin's thinking in another way, too: in the insistence on remembering history, taking it seriously. That Gorman so immaculately distills the complex attachment that many Black Americans -- including Langston Hughes and inaugural poet foremother Maya Angelou -- have to their country isn't surprising. Union leaders don't.

Source: CNN January 23, 2021 15:00 UTC