Posted on 01/20/2009 12:42:49 PM PST by raybbr
The tradition that a president-elect should choose a poet for his inauguration goes back to JFK and Robert Frost. Frost stole the heart of a nation with his performance on an icy January afternoon in 1961, reciting his poem "The Gift Outright" from memory when he found he could not read the faint typescript of the poem he'd written for the occasion.
I was a kid, watching the inauguration on television, and it was the first time I knew that it meant something to be a poet. Poets could inspire a nation, as Frost did.
Since then, I've watched as the new incumbents have chosen various poets, their choice on each occasion carrying carefully calculated messages. James Dickey, a Southerner to the core, read at Jimmy Carter's ceremony. Bill Clinton asked Maya Angelou in 1993 and Miller Wiliams in 1997. These were telling choices.
Angelou was a major figure among African-Americans, a poet who had won a large popular audience. Needless to say, Bill Clinton appealed, and tried to appeal, to a black audience. (His success in this respect was enshrined when Toni Morrison famously described him as America's first black president.) Miller Williams was a local choice, a poet from Arkansas, and a very fine one - yet a poet without a large audience. Again, Clinton signalled something with MIller. He was saying: "I'm really a local boy, with roots in Arkansas. Here's what I like."
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
It’s a little old but the idea of lauding this “poet” (I have written better poetry than what I heard today) is in step with NEVER criticizing any of Obama’s choices regardless of how vacuous they are.
All I can say is thank goodness Obama isn’t from Nantucket.
Hey! I’ve got a poem too:)
There once was a man named Obama
Who found that his fame caused a drama.
He focused on youth;
and found, forsooth
that his name is the same as a trauma.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
The selection of this poet was masterful, to say the least.
The collective decision to elect Obama was based on one premise, and one premise alone. It was the suspension of reality. They wanted Obama to be what they made him into in their minds, and so he was. The reality that was or is Obama matters not. He is their token Black man, representin’ his little ass off. In their minds he is perfect. That’s their reality. Even Obama knows better.
So this poet is no different. The people suspended reality because this Black woman had to be ready to reveal the wisdom of the ages to Baracks zombies. The mindset achieved, the “Oooos” and “Ahhhhs” were sure to flow.
Now if you’re not a part of the collective ‘Hive” mentality, you don’t see Obama as anything other than a snot nosed kid wet behind the ears. And you don’t see this poet as anything other than a rambling nit wit.
She’s actually a pretty good barometer of whether you’re going to like Obama or not. If you can suspend reality for him, the poet is a shoe in, and vise versa.
I don’t care what anyone says. That was not poetry. It was incoherent rambling.
Now that’s a poem I can understand!
Or more like a mundane speech than a poem.
Howdydo Captain! Why do you do that?????
ROFLMAO!!!!!! I wish you have been in Washington today!
Seems this whole inauguration was produced and directed by the lefty nerds at NPR
Is that somthing like hip-hop poetry that we heard today?
They should pick me next time. I can stand there and rattle off nonsense just as well.
A can of green beans, hush.
Fish wear helmets to protect their brains, rejoice!
A field of pizza toppings.
These socks won’t stay up on their own anymore.
Smoked meat cries out to be petted.
That’s deep YI. But nothing can match Herman Munster at the Beatnick Coffee shop when he uttered the words “ibbity bibbity, bibbity bab. Ibbity bibbity k’nabba.”
“elites” from all over the planet still can’t let go of the bush derangement syndrome. he graduated from the same university that obama did. as for grades, we know W’s, we don’t know
Barry’s.(undergrad)
Let me try one.
Potted meat and liver cheese,
Fly away in your best non-flammable pajamas.
Its against the law to smack your granny.
Stomp on a fish stick, stomp on a fish stick.
Quoth the mongoose, "Nevermore".
Hmmm, I saw Joe Biden copying over your shoulder as you wrote that...
She sounded like a teacher talking to 5 year olds.
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