Inaugural Poet
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- January
- 20
Poet Elizabeth Alexander, a lower Hudson Valley favorite, topped off the sparkling and emotional address of President Barak Obama this afternoon with glorious words of her own. She was asked to write a poem for the inauguration of our 44th president and graced the podium minutes after Obama.
Alexander spoke of generations of Americans some who had picked cotton and lettuce and others who had laid the nation’s train tracks and government buildings. She talked of the tradition of loving thy neighbor and treating people as you would want to be treated. 
But the words that hung in my mind on first listen came at the end of her poem:
“What if the mightiest word is love?”
Yes, what if — and what if the following word is respect.
Alexander has published her work with Slapering Hol Press, an imprint of the Hudson Valley Writers’ Center in Sleepy Hollow. They are quite proud that she is being highlighting today. (Photo above of Alexander from the HVWC.)
She is only the fourth poet in history to speak at an inaugural event. Robert Frost read for President John F. Kennedy, and Maya Angelou and Miller Williams read at President Bill Clinton’s inaugurations. In addition to being a poet, she is an essayist, playwright, and teacher. She is the author of four books of poems, The Venus Hottentot, Body of Life, Antebellum Dream Book, and American Sublime, one of three finalists for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize.
Last year, Slapering Hol Press published Poems in Conversation and a Conversation, by Elizabeth Alexander and Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon (edited by Margo Stever and Suzanne Cleary) as the first in its new Sleepy Hollow Chapbook Series. Alexander and Van Clief-Stefanon read from their work and answered audience questions at the Writers’ Center just a few weeks ago on December 12.
For a statement by Elizabeth Alexander about her selection as inaugural
poet, go to her Web site. For more information about Poems in Conversation and a Conversation,
go to the writers center.
And, here’s an update on the poem since I posted the top half of this post:
Graywolf Press will release a copy of Praise Song for the Day on Feb. 6 in a 32-page book. Associated Press writer Hillel Itale described the poem as a “14, unrhymed three-line stanzas, and a one-line coda.”
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 at 1:38 pm by Barbara Nackman.
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Her poetry wasn’t that bad but either nerves or other she didn’t speak it very well. you would think a poet would close their eyes and speak their poetry with passion. I only heard words no depth of feeling. oh well. at least she had her moment in the sun!