Who should be the inaugural poet for President-elect Obama?
Barack Obama is a poet himself, an inspiring and eloquent public speaker, and poetry is sure to be a part of his Presidential inauguration ceremony. Robert Frost recited a poem at John F. Kennedy’s inauguration, Maya Angelou read for Bill Clinton’s, and folks are already speculating on who will be Obama’s poet:
from The Telegraph (UK):
“Barack Obama still has time for a little poetry,” by Catherine Ellsworth
“Three days after winning the presidential election, Barack Obama was spotted in Chicago carrying a book of poems by Derek Walcott, the West Indies Nobel laureate.”
from Associated Press:
“Angelou writing a poem about Obama,” by Allen G. Breed
“Upon his election in 1992, Bill Clinton — affectionately referred to as the nation’s first black president — asked Maya Angelou to compose a poem and read it at his inauguration. Angelou feels a new poem welling up inside her following Barack Obama’s election, but she does not expect another command performance.”
So which poet would you like to hear from on Inauguration Day? Do tell!
Comments
As a poet myself my choice would be Alice Walker, a wonderful Afro-American poet with a strong voice and an outspoken commitment! A poet who always dared to stand in the frontline against racism and social injustice!
Nikki Giovanni
Toni Morrison
All the poets Laura Bush disinvited and anyone else Obama personally appreciates.
Amiri Baraka
Lemn Sissay is the perfect candidate
I’d like him to write and read his own poem!
Why not spread the wealth and go with another minority? Martin Espada or Li-Young Lee would be great.
Paul Muldoon would also work on this list of candidates, as would Derek Walcott. Shame that Alan Ginsberg and ee cummings are both dead.
Nikki Giovanni would be great, but Yusef Komunyakaa would be ideal.
I should be the inaugural poet for president Elect Obama. I have been quoted as the modern day langston hughes. I have already written a Momunental Master Piece Poem Titled”The 1st Black president” that is recieving raving reviews all over the city. Send me an e-mail address and I will forward it to you.
I nominate Patricia Smith.
You can find a list of reasons here:
http://geminipoet.blogspot.com/2008/11/patricia-smith-for-inaugural-poet.html
DEREK WALCOTT OBVIOUSLY
Bob Dylan.
I think that he should have a black poet but since Maya Angelou has already had the honor I think Nikki Giovanni would be a good choice.
Sapphire, obviously.
Marina Gipps or Matt Jasper. Not joking and am not being subtle, nor humble either. At the very least someone might google Marina Gipps or Matt Jasper and read their poems regardless of this arrogant comment left by Marina Gipps. We poets are attention starved for fame and mega-millions or at the very least a job to avoid the bush bean soup kitchens. Don’t hate us.
Sherman Alexie. His roots are in poetry. He speaks to this younger generation who elected Obama and he can play hoops. We don’t need a hoity toity poet.
RITA DOVE!! A former Poet Laureate, a teacher, a wonderful poet, with great presence and grace.
Lucille Clifton. In addition to her own poems, should read one by the lovely Gwendolyn Brooks.
I would like to nominate Gregg Brown. Mr. Brown is the President and CEO of South Side Community, the first African-American owed credit union in the city of Chicago, with a mission to equalize economic power and to fight poverty by improving financial literacy and providing access to credit and savings services. He is an accomplished writer and poet whose works touch the inner soul and spirit. I feel Mr. Brown, a Chicago talent, would be an awesome choice for the inaugural poet. We need to give other gifted people an opportunity to be heard - “It’s time for a change.”
As much as I admire a couple of poems she has written, certainly NOT Maya Angelou! That forced, high-flown stuff she did for Clinton’s inauguration was truly awful.
Plenty of good poets just wouldn’t be right for what the occasion demands.
Martin Espada has the talent, including the capacity to write an expansive poem suitable for reading aloud in a public setting BUT perhaps he is just too principled to sing a leader’s tune … He might feel compromised by the imlicit requirement to write “on message”.
I deserve it. I studied with U.S. Poet Laureate, Simic independently and I put more free labor into Barack Obama’s campaign than a million volunteers and paid personnel gathered in herds. I blogged against every Anti-Obama smear 24/7 and was victimized by Matt Drudge cyberbullys for defending my Candidate. Gosh darnit…I’m special. Time for new blood, guys. For Real Change, pick me. I embody Change. I am a chameleon.
It should be me!
An Ode to The Up and Coming
by poetryality on February 26, 2008
© Renee Matthews-Jackson, All rights reserved
http://allpoetry.com/poem/show/3963097
Dark child of distant ancestors do come
Awaken all the people that are sleep
Prepare the way with loudly pounded drum
Make no promise to us you cannot keep
Instead allow your leadership to grow
Into the hearts of those who fend you well
And share with you our need to have a go
Of what this nation must weigh and curtail
And we will stand in lines to give our vote
For greater than one person we promote
Young one do not hold fear as your platform
Like those who are so bound and declare war
And look on betterment as now the norm
Erase the evils that held us before
Commit yourself to do the next right thing
Do speak and walk with dignity as lead
And watch the transformation that it brings
For you’ve been thrown into the midst of ne
ed In honor hold your head to heights of peac
e Today show us that there is an increase
We know that you look to the future state
Where all are equal and with outstretched arms
Forgiving past behaviors of Black hate
We ask that God will keep you from great harm
Then, you with honest calm will lead the way
Where citizens unite with alms of joy
Like Jericho, the walls a crumbled fray
And round about swept up each wicked ploy
Where each one blends right in, with colored hue
For seasons have their sway in what to do
Dear soldier, hands of healing set your pace
Engulf this country, yes, stir up the Earth
And let the sun of morning pique your face
Revive us with your portion of rebirth
Enlist to all the ears that will entreat
With words that do not candy nor do coat
That’s seen in glaze of eyes whene’er we meet
And proudly we will wear the badge of wrote
But speak the plainest truth one can behold
What transpires just now has been foretold
How proud you’ve made so many of themselves
By standing as a man should always do
And when we see the year two-thousand twelve
We will repeat, and vote for you then too
For this new age dictates a different skit
And some will never fully understand
So keep on Brother never call it quits
For you have forces with you in this land
Your causes have to make a shift in tone
And know that you will never be alone
I agree with B.Prod. Gregg Brown is a wonderful poet, actor, and community leader. He would be great for the inauguration.
#23) Marina Gipps — Obama would likely seek a poet who reflects his spirit of humility, not self-entitlement.
My vote is for Marilyn Nelson Waniek whose work encompasses American and African-American history, and has a presence that is hard to beat.
I would love for my daughter to say her poem for the inauguration ceremony. She is an outstanding poet and orator. She is a senior in high school and is ranked 3rd in her class of 429 students. She has won numerous contest in forensics and Oratorical contests. It would be refreshing to hear something from the youth perspective. Like Mr. Obama ,a change we can believe in. A name to remember Miss India W. Grant. “Behold, Greatest in the
Making.”
I would love for my daughter to say her poem for the inauguration ceremony. She is an outstanding poet and orator. She is a senior in high school and is ranked 3rd in her class of 429 students. She has won numerous contest in forensics and Oratorical contests. It would be refreshing to hear something from the youth perspective. Like Mr. Obama ,a change we can believe in. A name to remember Miss India W. Grant. “Behold, Greatest in the
Making.”
I studied with U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Simic
and prior to that I was at the Naropa Institute
where I studied with Ginsberg among others. My work has appeared in Abraxas (Trilce Edition), Bombay Gin, Exquisite Corpse, Rambunctious Review, Hyena, Croton Bug, Potato Eyes, Crossroad Press Anthology of Works in Progress, Poetry Motel, etc…I embrace Democratic ideals and am the daughter of naturalized Americans. I am first generation American, disabled, unemployed and the victim of stockbroker fraud. I am the voice that Obama defends in his speeches. I am an underdog. Here is my poem (one of 300 I’ve written to date). I get fan mail from people asking where they can buy my book and sadly, I don’t have an answer.
The Hackeyed Road Narrows
The hackneyed road narrows.
Obsidian winged birds
fly by
Night wades the weary
horizon’s unrest.
I begin again.
Must find a place.
A cat bird
or dogfish
beckoning distance
from cages.
I walk aware
of the love of man
and christ,
how murder is
seasonal change.
It is good to live
alone
willing to fly
distances
with sore winged
desire.
I would be
a bird,
rising to
the occasion,
spreading its wings
in the shape of
a cross.
For what little power
a man walks
listening to the leaves,
his dementia against death.
It takes so little
to be free.
So little
to lose a name
or an address,
walk the fires of grounds,
burning
small truths.
I shall
survive
this terrible road.
My bird shall
sing.
MARINA GIPPS
From His Shadow
None would have ever believed
when the voting was done
A man of color would be chosen
Presidential Election was to be won
Beginnings of a unique launch
objective needed to be changed
Time to mend the past carnage
new course already arranged
Burdens of the world put upon him
providence has placed them there
Out of the shadows of Dr. King
predecessor birthed from prayer
Not only inspiring new hope
while the urgency burns deep
Secure what has been dismantled
though the road there is steep
Groomed for ultimate articulacy
reassembling Dr. Kings Dream
Barack Obama became the man
Audacity of Hope he Screamed
The dream became an illusion
one men carried in their minds
The thoughts turned into reality
with common causes that binds
Unfastening antiquated shackles
placed many centuries before
Ignorance served inherited fears
kept many from freedoms door
Upon the changing of the sentry
what was then now will never be
Honored mantel of Doctor Kings
Barack Obama will bear it for free
Fashioned from a Community Organizer
to President of The United States
Delivered from out of His Shadows
now destined to be one of the Greats
Deborah Young, the Visual Poet should be chosen as President-Elect Barack Obama’s inaugural poet. Deborah Young is America’s most unique poet and I think an inaugural poem by her would be awe-inspiring.
The next inaugural poet should be Jimmy Santiago Baca, with poetry so haunting and true, he is the voice of the forgotten people and the voice of the voiceless. His poetry transends all boundries and all can relate. Jimmy for inaugural poet!
I would love to see Amiri Baraka, but due to his past controversies I think it would be an unwise choice.
What difference does it make anyway? The Republicans have destroyed our economy so badly that Obama just has to try to keep our head above the water so that this country does not drown. It is merely survival at this point.
Obama might as well read that poem that he wrote while he was in high school: The one with that line about trying to walk straight in a crooked world. I think that line will be prophetic of his presidency. There is a power out there that is far bigger than our presidents and I think that it is corporations. So with this Fascism further polluting our atmosphere…you can read my poem or continue to read these famous poets who have nothing to offer in terms of change as they are ultimately part of the corporatocracy with their giant book sales.
We question nothing. We are afraid to be exposed to anything new. The corporate blueprint has already been etched in stone.
There is no changing that. I am tired. Another day of no job and no exposure and leaving a pathetic online message in hopes that someone might read me and for what?
This is a joke. Let’s go for some nice safe choices…let’s question nothing. Let’s not make any waves ever. Let’s be static.
Is this what Americans actually aspire to?
Here is my poem:
Ex Post Facto
i. Prologue Ex
This forever war is flowing somewhere…
A ballad of the blues over sanguine seas.
The baghdad blues:
a man in a corner does not move.
His wife and children, strewn: lost love-letters of blood.
Beneath the veil of a willowy dream,
as if the world shall absolve you with buttery palms.
God is watching you, sad soldier,
dragging the landing gear of prosthetics.
ii. Post En Medias Res
In this land of no escape,
Take me to Walter Reed,
The privatized foothold of rats,
Birthing future breeders
Of post traumatic stress,
Oil oligarchy disorder.
To spend limbless days,
basking in the sun’s rays, enlivened
with particles of biochemical warfare.
iii Facto Epilogue
I hear America crying:
politicians as war heroes,
priests as common criminals,
bards at the podium.
And where are the philosophers?
Destined to the peeling wail
of a teetering helicopter,
Small mosquito in the eye of God?
Listen, America, dry your tears,
don’t bask in the permanent grandeur
of abandoned radio halls
As we walk on water like Jesus,
Apprenticed for Armageddon.
MARINA GIPPS
Hey, speaking of shaking up the literary world, I want a good photo of Holman’s question mark jacket for a page in a literary magazine that is going back into print: Pavlov Neruda.
All progressive poets need unite in support of Barack Obama, as he prepares to assume the monumental demands required of our next President.
BUSH LEGACY OF RUIN
Two wars, a million dead
Holidays at Crawford…
While brave soldiers bled
Failed;
Leadership
Banks
Wall Street
Big Three
Meanwhile;
Bush bid Rove to re-write history
Bought himself a brand new house
Why not jailed remains a mystery
Media mute, like a temple mouse
In 100 years he’d be another hero
Forgotten, all past transgressions
Although;
Legacy of ruin had been his credo
Having used invasion/aggression
After two terms;
An angry Nation bid George “Adieu”
A mulatto janitor mopped-up his residue
ROTMS
Mil Norman-Risch has so much to say. Let her say it. She says it so beautifully.
My vote is for Rita Dove.