Various poets and poems were all over the news thanks to the Inauguration on the 20th and Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday on the 19th. So here are a smattering of links about the two:
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- MSNBC’s video of the reading by Elizabeth Alexander. I would be interested in hearing thoughts on it (I’ll post the transcript in the comments).
- Time has an interview with Elizabeth Alexander about her process and thoughts on inaugural poems.
- And on to Poe. NPR has had a few pieces on him. The first is a remembrance with “Gomez” from The Addams Family (I like that the slug on the website doesn’t even refer to the actor by his real name). The second story I’m linking to covers the efforts of yet another city (Boston) to lay some claim to Poe. (He was born there in 1809 and was taken away shortly thereafter upon being orphaned. Apparently he later claimed he was ashamed to be born in Boston.)
Inaugural Poem by Elizabeth Alexander
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.
(text from: the New York Times )
John McCain Interview
Funny Election Video
At the 6:50 mark The Daily Show addresses the Inaugural poem (in a manner not unexpected).
Colbert Christmas DVD
Bill O’Reilly Interview
video post extravaganza!