Signs of hope, renewal spring from inauguration poet Amanda Gorman’s sunny yellow coat
By now, a gazillion words have been written about the 22-year-old poet who spoke during the presidential inauguration.
Amanda Gorman gave a soaring rendition of her poem “The Hill We Climb” on Jan. 20, soon after Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were sworn in as U.S. president and vice president, respectively.
Yes, Amanda Gorman was mind-blowingly brilliant and inspiring. But the startlingly mature national youth poet laureate and her poem are not my topics today.
I’m still fascinated by something else that struck me during her recital.
As I watched and listened to Gorman, I was also contemplating her chic coat — or, more to the point, the color.
If that seems, at first blush, to be incredibly shallow of me, I’m certainly not the only journalist who noticed and chose to write about it. Some even said the color of the double-breasted Prada garment was a significant symbol for the poet, a nod to Dr. Jill Biden.
I don’t know about that, but the coat certainly was a sunshiny spring yellow, so bright that it may even glow in the dark of a closed closet.
Amid the somber tone of the event, with its overlay of U.S. National Guard service members in uniform, dissent and fear, the poet and her attire were so refreshing, so uplifting, so optimistic. Although other women and young ladies wore vivid colors and pastels, Gorman’s yellow was in a class by itself.
So springlike. So hopeful.
It highlighted nicely the hope that seemed to spring (pun intended) from the event at which she spoke.
After all, spring is the season of renewed hope, and yellow is so much the color of spring.
If you look closely, you’ll see that color beginning to pop up around us already on the North Coast.
I see hope in yellow streaks of spring sunshine, or the golden reflection of a brilliant moon on the ocean. Rejoice on a dark night about the welcoming beacon of buttery-yellow light in a home’s window.
Daffodils are beginning to bud and bloom, giving a seasonal nod to the hope of spring.
Golden daisies already are lining my driveway, welcoming me back when I’ve been away, however, briefly.
Soon, our meadow will be dotted with the tasty golden calendula field flowers that our deer love to devour.
Can lupine and California poppies be far behind? How about the perky oxalis that frosts emerald hills and fields, and vast swaths of mustard blooming as tall as I am?
Yeah, I know they’re weeds. So sue me. They’re pretty in spring.
Can the rain of late January overcome the dry spell of late fall and early winter? Can the coronavirus vaccine overcome the deadly threat of COVID-19? Will life be able to return to a semblance of normal someday, somehow?
Can hope?
Gorman wrote and spoke about “light in this never-ending shade.” Her coat seemed to reflect the underlying optimism of that line and those that followed: “The dawn is ours before we knew it.”
I won’t go into the politics of the inauguration; people with far more credentials than I have already hashed that over and over.
The new president has moved on and is trying to implement his agenda, while Congress members will continue to wrestle over issues from monumentally important to incredibly insignificant. Arguments put on hold will resume. Problems as yet unsolved will rise again to trouble, maybe even smite, us.
But in the middle of all that, maybe somebody else will wear a bright yellow coat, and we can see it, too, as another sign of hope, of spring, of renewal.
Observe. Enjoy. Take it to heart. Repeat.
