Friday, January 20, 2017

January 20: Greatest President, Elizabeth Alexander, "Praise Song for the Day"

There was no poet at Donald Trump's inauguration.  Doesn't surprise me.  Honestly, I would have been surprised if there had been an inaugural poet.

So, in order to keep the dream alive, I have a poem written for President Obama's first inauguration.  It's a poem full love and light.  It still stirs me deeply, eight years after the first time I heard it recited by Elizabeth Alexander.  I remember how I felt that day.  The great pride I had in being a citizen of the United States.

I truly hope that Donald Trump proves me wrong.  I hope that he turns out to be the greatest president this country has every known.

Until that time, however, Saint Marty reserves the freedom to judge and criticize.  That's what democracy is all about, after all.

Praise Song for the Day

by:  Elizabeth Alexander

Each day we go about our business,
walking past each other, catching each other’s
eyes or not, about to speak or speaking.

All about us is noise. All about us is
noise and bramble, thorn and din, each
one of our ancestors on our tongues.

Someone is stitching up a hem, darning
a hole in a uniform, patching a tire,
repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere,
with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum,
with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.
A farmer considers the changing sky.
A teacher says, Take out your pencils. Begin.

We encounter each other in words, words
spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed,
words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark
the will of some one and then others, who said
I need to see what’s on the other side.

I know there’s something better down the road.
We need to find a place where we are safe.
We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain: that many have died for this day.
Sing the names of the dead who brought us here,
who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges,

picked the cotton and the lettuce, built
brick by brick the glittering edifices
they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle, praise song for the day.
Praise song for every hand-lettered sign,
the figuring-it-out at kitchen tables.

Some live by love thy neighbor as thyself,
others by first do no harm or take no more
than you need. What if the mightiest word is love?

Love beyond marital, filial, national,
love that casts a widening pool of light,
love with no need to pre-empt grievance.

In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air,
any thing can be made, any sentence begun.
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp,

praise song for walking forward in that light.

Frost--the first inaugural poet

1 comment: