Poet and activist Amanda Gorman wrote a searing series of tweets in the wake of Tuesday’s mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that claimed the lives of 19 students and two teachers.
Gorman, 24, shared the poems on Twitter.
“Schools scared to death.
Get Tri-state area news delivered to your inbox. Sign up for NBC New York's News Headlines newsletter.
The truth is, one education under desks,
Stooped low from bullets;
That plunge when we ask
Where our children
Shall live
& how
& if,” she wrote.
Gorman followed up her poem with a trio of tweets expressing her sadness and outrage at the shootings.
“It takes a monster to kill children. But to watch monsters kill children again and again and do nothing isn’t just insanity—it’s inhumanity,” she wrote.
“The truth is, one nation under guns,” she wrote in another tweet.
“What might we be if only we tried. What might we become if only we’d listen,” she added.
Gorman, who was the first person to be named National Youth Poet Laureate in 2017, also became the youngest inaugural poet in American history when she spoke at President Joe Biden’s inauguration in January 2021 at the age of 22. She has also been vocal about her desire to run for president when she'll be age eligible in 2036.
Gorman's reaction to the shootings was echoed by many other people whose lives have been affected by school shootings.
Among those who were crushed by the news was Fred Guttenberg, the father of 14-year-old Jaime, who died in a mass shooting that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in February 2018.
“I am speechless,” he tweeted.
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
