A Poem is a Window

Only three presidents have commisioned poets to write poems to be read at their innagurations.

Robert Frost read at the inauguration of JFK in 1961, Maya Angelou at the inauguration of Bill Clinton in 1993, Miller Williams in 1997 for the second inauguration of Bill Clinton, and Elizabeth Alexander who read today for the inauguration of Barak Obama.

When Robert Frost took the podium in 1961, the sun and the cold hindered him from seeing clearly the words to "Dedication", which he had written for the occasion. Instead, he recited a poem called "The Gift Outright" by memory. I love this story!

Maya Angelou read her beautiful poem, On the Pulse of Morning in 1993 and Miller Williams read Of History and Hope in 1997. Today, Elizabeth Alexander read her poem, Praise Song For the Day. Her delivery was not as powerful as someone like Maya Angelou, but she read a stunning poem that I look forward to reading again once it's published. A stanza that I loved was,

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.

There were several artistic expressions included in todays ceremony. Aretha Franklin singing "My Country Tis of Thee", the quartet of Yo-Yo Ma on cello, Itzhak Perlman on violin, Gabriela Montero on piano and Anthony McGill on clarinet, the choirs, the beautiful prayers of Rick Warren and Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, and Elizabeth's poem. I'm so thankful for these creations that made their way into such a formal ceremony. I hope future presidents follow Kennedy, Clinton and Obama and realize the power of something as seemingly simple as a poem.

“A poem is a window that hangs between two or more human beings who otherwise live in darkened rooms.”
-Stephen Dobyns

Snow Dogs

A new year always feels like starting a car in the freezing cold; it takes a little time to get warmed up again. And since we are in Iowa this week, our car is demonstrating this for us quite well. :)

Yesterday I had some down time during what felt like a small blizzard so Oso and I went on a walk. Oso LOVES the snow. The path we walked on was covered in a foot of snow and it was coming down hard enough that our tracks were covered by the time we turned around to walk back to the car. Of course, trot is a better word for Oso and trudge is a better word for me. It was a nice adventure and I enjoyed staring at the beautifully shaped snowflakes landing on my gloves.

I spend much of my time thinking these days. There is much to think about and our future feels a lot like this snowy path, all gloriously foggy and stretched out ahead of us like a measuring tape. (as mentioned in the previous post)

Thinking...thinking...thinking...it's what I do best, according to my strength finder test. :) Thinking so much that my swirling thoughts are having a hard time landing anywhere as this snow does so easily. I'm lost somewhere between the clouds and the ground, still. When some more thoughts land, some will land here I'm sure. I'll keep trudging down the path in the meantime. Hope you don't mind.