A New President...followed by a Poet.

On November the 4th, when it was confirmed that Obama was the President-elect, I cried tears of joy and rememberance. Rememberance of something that is not even mine or my history - but that was held together by the people I saw in their joy and by the racial pride that crosses boundaries and borders. Time seem to have been eclipsed when a black family walked out after the words were uttered, "Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome the next first family of the United States."

The elation has been tempered for many reasons over the last couple of months. The reasons do not need to be entered into here. I am still happy that the USA has witnessed its first black and multiracial President. Even though being part of an executive would not be my first recommendation for change, I would love to see other people of colour up there one day soon.

Now.

Overall I was unimpressed by Obama's Inaugural Address. I was facebook chatting to Caiti, and since it was around 4am, our conversation consisted of clipped sentences or words that reflected disappointment or promise at the trajectory of Obama's speech. It would have been funny to track on a line graph. OK, TALKING ABOUT THE MARKET AS THE KEY TO ALL WEALTH AND PROSPERITY - BAD and LINE DIP! WE DO NOT HAVE TO CHOOSE BETWEEN SAFETY AND OUR IDEALS - GOOD and LINE GOES SLIGHTLY UP! etc. etc.

So leave it to a Woman of Colour...to say through poetry no less, and in a voice that reminds me of some spoken word artists, what I really wanted to hear. What stood out for me:

• Words are everything.
• Never forget history and whatever people have in the US, people of colour have BUILT IT and struggled for it. Also people of colour built capitalism!!!!
  
• Hope.
• Love - "What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national." Yes, yes and YES!!!
  

Ok, obviously the second point is my interpretation. You can watch it below for yourself and the poem is below the video.

Elizabeth Alexander, word.



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.