Praise Song for the Day
by Elizabeth Alexander, Inaugural Poet
Praise song for the day.
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.
hooray, i loved this and am so happy to have easily landed on it without any googling whatsoever. it was a fresh voice with a clear message.
happy obama day.
Posted by: marta | January 20, 2009 at 06:22 PM
I'm glad to be able to read it. I wasn't thrilled with her delivery, which is sad because it was her creation and that must be how she thought it should be read. I was watching CNN's coverage and they were using a camera shot of the crowd at the end and I totally didn't know she had finished, which made it feel anticlimactic.
Posted by: Kristin Edvalson Wardle | January 20, 2009 at 09:15 PM
Today I wish I had a blog--but I don't so I'll use yours, if you don't mind. I watched the inauguration with a class of fifth graders and was full of joy to be proud again. It's been a long time since I felt honored and honorable as a citizen of this nation. I was afraid we had lost that, but there it was again today. As I watched I thought "there it is! there we are! this is what I remember about being an American. It isn't lost. It's back. Praise song for the day! Yes! I'm praising and thanking once again!!!!
Posted by: mariann | January 20, 2009 at 10:18 PM
Thank you for posting this. I'll read and reread it.
Posted by: Karen Hill | January 22, 2009 at 12:10 AM