And before we go, we want to take some time for reflections about how people are coping

with the devastating California wildfires.

The renowned poet laureate and Los Angeles native, Amanda Gorman, has penned a heartfelt

tribute expressing her fears and her hopes for her community, and I spoke with her yesterday.

Amanda Gorman, welcome back to the News Hour. Thanks for joining us.

Thanks for having me. So you are a Los Angeles native. You live in the Pacific Palisades.

Tell us how you're doing. Tell us if your home is okay. And also what it's been like just to watch all of this devastation and loss unfold in a

place you call home. Thank you for asking. I mean, I'm so blessed. I'm safe. My family's safe.

My house is doing okay. But it's been just devastating, I think, on a communal level to see this

amount of damage and loss in a city that we love.

L.A. is incredibly strong and resilient, and it's also just been amazing to see the way people

are coming together, but we have a really long trek ahead of us.

So tell us what led you to write this poem, smoldering dawn.

Well, when the fires broke out in Los Angeles, I was actually in New York City, just by accident.

I happened to be doing some press there. And when I saw the amount of ruin and wreckage,

I felt so hopeless and so helpless that I couldn't be there with my city in that moment,

but I wanted to process that grief that I was feeling as an Angelino.

And so I wrote the poem for myself just to work through what I was feeling and then decided

to share it in the hope that it might bring some warmth and soul and spirit to a time that feels really hard for Californians right now.

For anyone who hasn't had a chance to read it yet, would you mind sharing a few lines maybe?

Absolutely. So I'll share the last few lines.

Today we mourn. Tomorrow tomorrow reborn. We end the burning, befriend the hurting, mend those

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