Inauguration Day Poem

Praise song for the day

By Elizabeth Alexander

Each day we go about our business, walking past each
other, catching each others' 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
someone 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 thy
self."

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
preempt grievance.

In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can
be made, any sentence begun.

On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp -- praise song
for walking forward in that light.

http://www.elizabethalexander.net/home.html

I've read some criticism of this poem and I have read some praise.    I personally
loved the entire poem.    If you might not have been so taken, perhaps there is just
a line that will speak to you.    

To anyone who follows blogs, these words might speak to your heart ....

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