Hymn for the Hurting

Amanda Gorman’s poem bears repeating until the craziness of events, such as again this week, ends. Enough! Where’s the petition? Who’s organizing the protest march? Americans have the right to bear arms, but what about the right to live peacefully? Stop the madness!

Looking at life from a different point of view,
Debora Buerk
The Write Stuff

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Hymn for the Hurting

AMANDA GORMAN

Everything hurts,
Our hearts shadowed and strange,
Minds made muddied and mute.
We carry tragedy, terrifying and true.
And yet none of it is new;
We knew it as home,
As horror,
As heritage.
Even our children
Cannot be children,
Cannot be.
Everything hurts.
It’s a hard time to be alive,
And even harder to stay that way.
We’re burdened to live out these days,
While at the same time, blessed to outlive them.
This alarm is how we know
We must be altered —
That we must differ or die,
That we must triumph or try.
Thus while hate cannot be terminated,
It can be transformed
Into a love that lets us live.
May we not just grieve, but give:
May we not just ache, but act;
May our signed right to bear arms
Never blind our sight from shared harm;
May we choose our children over chaos.
May another innocent never be lost.
Maybe everything hurts,
Our hearts shadowed & strange.
But only when everything hurts
May everything change.