The following is Elizabeth Alexander's stirring poem written for the Inauguration of President Barack Obama."Praise song for the day".Each day we go about our business,walking past each other, catching each other’seyes or not, about to speak or speaking.All about us is noise. All about us isnoise and bramble, thorn and din, eachone of our ancestors on our tongues.Someone is stitching up a hem, darninga 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, wordsspiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed,words to consider, reconsider.We cross dirt roads and highways that markthe will of some one and then others, who saidI 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, builtbrick by brick the glittering edificesthey 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 morethan 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.http://ready2beat.com/current-news/political-news/elizabeth-alexander-sing-inaugural-poem-inauguration-2009
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