Amanda Gorman at the United Nations: "I challenge you to do good"

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Amanda Gorman at the United Nations in New York: An ode we owe the world

Poet Amanda Gorman, 24, has presented a new work before the United Nations.

"All I ask is that before it's too late, it's important to you that you live alert and awake," Gorman said Monday at an event on the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

It precedes the United Nations General Assembly, which starts on Tuesday: "Above all, I challenge you to do good so that the world can be great." Gorman received a lot of applause for her performance.

When Gorman was invited to address the United Nations Assembly, she says she looked closely at the impact of societal issues such as hunger and poverty on the stewardship of the planet.

Gorman became famous at the inauguration of US President Joe Biden on January 20, 2021, when the then 22-year-old - broadcast via cameras to an audience of millions worldwide - urgently recited her poem "The Hill We Climb" and was supported by top politicians and stars was showered with praise.

Since then, the poet, who was born in Los Angeles in 1998, has also been considered a star herself.

"The Hill We Climb" sold millions of copies in print, including the German translation ("Den Hügel hoch").

As with The Hill We Climb, Gorman felt called to evoke the power of unity in the poetic words she delivered on the opening day of the 77th session of the Assembly in New York.

"An Ode We Owe" (An Ode We Owe) is the title of the poem in which she expresses her hope that all nations can be brought together to address issues of inequality and the integrity of the planet.

Watch the video of her performance here and read the text of the poem below:

»To Ode We Owe«

How can I ask you to do good,

When we've barely withstood

Our greatest threats yet:

The depths of death, despair and disparity,

Atrocities across cities, towns & countries,

Lives lost, climactic costs.

Exhausted, angered, we are endangered,

not because of our numbers,

but because of our numbness.

We're strangers

To one another's perils and pain,

Unaware that the welfare of the public

And the planet share a name-

-Equality

doesn't mean being the exact same,

But enacting a vast aim:

The good of the world to its highest capability.

The wise believe that our people without power

Leaves our planet without possibility.

Therefore, though poverty is a poor existence,

compliance is a poorer excuse.

We must go the distance,

though this battle is hard and huge,

though this fight we did not choose,

for preserving the earth isn't a battle too large

to win, but a blessing too large to lose.

This is the most pressing truth:

That Our people have only one planet to call home

And our planet has only one people to call its own.

We can either divide and be conquered by the few,

Or we can decide to conquer the future,

And say that today a new dawn we wrote,

Say that as long as we have humanity,

We will forever have hope.

Together, we won't just be the generation

That tries but the generation that triumphs;

Let us see a legacy

Where tomorrow is not driven

By the human condition,

But by our human conviction.

And while hope alone can't save us now,

With it we can brave the now,

Because our hardest change hinges

On our darkest challenges.

Thus may our crisis be our cry, our crossroad,

The oldest ode we owe each other.

We chime it, for the climate,

for our communities.

We shall respect and protect

Every part of this planet,

Hand it to every heart on this earth,

Until no one's worth is rendered

By the race, gender, class, or identity

They were born.

This morning let it be sworn

That we are one one human kin,

grounded not just by the griefs

we bear, but by the good we begin.

To anyone out there:

I only ask that you care before it's too late,

that you live aware and awake,

that you lead with love in hours of hate.

I challenge you to heed this call,

I dare you to shape our fate.

Above all, I dare you to do good

So that the world might be great

In addition to Gorman, UN Secretary-General António Guterres and stars such as actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas and the South Korean band Blackpink also spoke at the UN event.

In 2015, the world's heads of state and government adopted the so-called Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

A total of 17 goals are to be achieved by 2030, including ending extreme poverty and hunger and improving global education.

It is also about fighting the climate crisis and the prosperity gap.

feb/dpa/AP