Mr. Linney

January 19, 2009

In a previous assignment regarding Maya Angelou’s poem, On the Pulse of Morning, I made a couple of mistakes and in my redaction and on the eve of the inauguration I want to take the opportunity to springboard into some future assignments that we will consider at Durham Nativity School.

My first mistake, Maya Angelou was not the Poet Laureate.  I think I made the mistake because of a previous Poet Laureate, Robert Frost, who also read a poem at a presidential inauguration.  A poet who reads at the inauguration is not necessarily the Poet Laureate.

Second mistake, Maya’s poem was not called A Rock, A river, A tree.  That was merely the first line of her poem called, On the pulse of morning.  http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mayaangeloupresidentialinaguralpoem.htm

Take a look at the following link to explore some information on the role of the Poet Laureate in the U.S., a role currently held by Kay Ryan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poet_Laureate_Consultant_in_Poetry_to_the_Library_of_Congress 

As for poems read at presidential inaugurations there is some interesting information below.

INAUGURATION POETS

Elizabeth Alexander is only the fourth poet asked to write and read a poem for a U.S. presidential inauguration. Her predecessors:

• Robert Frost: Frost wrote the poem Dedication for John F. Kennedy’s 1961 inauguration, but the glare of the sun off the snow-covered ground left the elderly poet unable to read it. Instead, Frost recited from memory his 1942 poem, The Gift Outright, which begins: “The land was ours before we were the land’s/She was our land more than a hundred years/Before we were her people.”  These two poems can be found at: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/inauguration/frost_poem.html

• Maya Angelou: Angelou read her poem On the Pulse of Morning at Bill Clinton’s first inauguration in 1993. The final lines: “Here on the pulse of this new day/You may have the grace to look up and out/And into your sister’s eyes, into/Your brother’s face, your country/And say simply/Very simply/With hope/Good morning.”

• Miller Williams: The Arkansas poet spoke at Clinton’s second inauguration in 1997. His poem Of History and Hope begins: “We have memorized America,/how it was born and who we have been and where. In ceremonies and silence we say the words, telling the stories, singing the old songs.”  This poem can be found at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/inaug/mon/poem.htm

From: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/main/6213542.html

We are going to take a close look at Elizabeth Alexander’s poem after it is delivered on Tuesday, January 20, 2009.  We might begin by learning something about her at: http://www.elizabethalexander.net/home.html

When asked about how she was preparing to write this poem for Barack Obama’s inauguration she said,  “I try, in the course of my day and in the course of my dreams, to leave myself open to all of the different kinds of language available to us at any given moment. The poet’s job is to capture and distill that language and shape it into a form.”

I would hope that we would take her words seriously, that the poet gives language a shape and form, when thinking about our own writing, God’s writing in Scripture, the Psalmists’ writing, etc.

We are going to consider memorizing and reflecting upon Alexander’s poem, Maya’s poem, Frost’s poem, Miller William’s poem.  I want us to take a careful look at Obama’s “Yes, we can” speech during the campaign.  http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/26/obama.transcript/index.html

And of course we will carefully consider President Barack Obama’s inaugural address.  Before he delivers there are some questions for your consideration.

How does the rhetoric and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. factor into what we will hear from Obama?  And you need to be saavy on this one.  You won’t know King is being represented simply when you hear Obama say, “And in the tradition of Dr. King” or something like that and then he leads into a direct quote.  We might hear some direct quoting and referencing, but Obama’s team of speech writers are too good for that.  They will be more nuanced.  Instead you might hear something about it having been a long night, or the sun coming up, or the horizon arcs toward justice, or a vast number of other phrases that come out of The Movement and are being realized in this new presidency.

The closer you listen tomorrow, the better you will do in the coming weeks and months as we turn our efforts back toward this historic occasion again and again.

Good luck.  Don’t miss the boat on what is happening on Tuesday, January 20, 2009.  It is like the day that Kennedy was shot, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, invasion of Pearl Harbor, falling of the Berlin Wall, you will want to mark where you were and who you were with and what was said, and even how it smelled.  I am thankful that I will be watching with you–the students at the Durham Nativity School.