The Inaugural Poet

I never realized that the inauguration of a President required a poet. It seems a bit out of place to me. We are celebrating democracy and the electoral process which gives us a turning of the page. We are demonstrating to the less fortunate of the world our rare ability to transition power without violence. We are exhibiting the glory of our capitol and the strength of our nation. We are coming together to heal the partisan divisions of a brutal campaign. We are welcoming the new administration and saying farewell to the departing. But, as the Mexican bandit might have noted, "We don' need no steenkin' poets."

That, of course, was before our first "black President," William Jefferson Clinton's inaugural events. He had Maya Angelou reciting something which, I will confess, made little sense to me and seemed out of place. I recall much discussion of the reading and, since I've got a couple of books in print, I note that Ms Angelou's writings suddenly were in great demand.

So, now we've got our first "real Black President." And, he's got the requisite poet chosen. And, not surprisingly that laureate is both female and African-American, once again. Her name is Elizabeth Alexander and she comes with great credentials--if one believes that Afro-centric studies at Ivy League schools is a stepping stone to greatness.

Here's an exposure to a couple of works which she herself presents. I note that she draws heavily on other people's words (an apparent tradition of modern Left intellectuals), and her poetry consists not of dynamics of verse, but simple declarative sentences which seem to this pedestrian observer totally superficial and mundane. Judge for yourself:


Elizabeth Alexander is Barack Obama's inaugural poet from Neil Astley on Vimeo.

I went to Amazon.com to check on poet Alexander's "books" and find them to be less than weighty tomes. Her "Venus Hottentot" runs a massive 64 pages. Two other contributions are 96 pages each. They might be called pamphlets rather than books. Why am I flashing back on Balph Eubanks?

Naturally she waxes literary for the Wall Street Journal:

WSJ Interviews the Artist

I like some of these quotes:

When I compose poetry, I don't think themes, I begin with language. I do believe that form and function are united, that they go together. But I don't start with an idea that I wish to express in poetry.

So it's a bit Lewis Carroll jabberwocky, I guess. Or maybe this:

We aren't listening for a message but rather listening for we don't know what exactly, but we're allowing ourselves to be stirred in some kind of way. That's the power of good poetry when people are open to it. To create a contemplative moment in the midst of this grand occasion, and to say every single word matters as we communicate with each other, that's what the presence of poetry accomplishes.

Isn't that clear? No message, simply stirring. Contemplation of single words which matter and say nothing!

Oh yeah, definitely Balph Eubanks.