One Today: A Poem for Barack Obama’s Presidential Inauguration Paperback – March 7, 2013

A Democratic president with a black African father and a Caucasian American mother selecting a gay Cuban American to write a poem for his second inauguration-- surely this is the stuff that history is made of! As I watched Richard Blanco read "One Today" on a ceiling-to-floor television screen at the Carter Presidential Library in Atlanta, in the words of Wordsworth, my heart leaped up. Mr. Blanco at first appeared to be a bit nervous-- who wouldn't be?-- as he stood, looking handsome, and pushed off with the opening stanza:One sun rose on us today, kindled over our shores,peeking over the Smokies, greeting the facesof the Great Lakes, spreading a simple truthacross the Great Plains, then charging across the Rockies.One light, waking up rooftops, under each one, a storytold by our silent gestures moving behind windows.Like other poems for inaugurations, "One Today" is about the landscape of America and its diversity and ultimate oneness. Mr. Blanco's poem goes from coast to coast, including the many kinds of Americans, the many languages, the many occupations. He mentions two recent tragedies, the killing of the school children in Connecticut ("the empty desks of twenty children marked absent today, and forever") and 9/11 (the construction of "the last floor on the Freedom Tower"). Mr. Blanco weaves his heritage into the poem as well, reminding us that his mother rang up groceries for twenty years so that he could "write this poem for us today" and that his father's hands were worn from cutting sugarcane "so my brother and I could have books and shoes." He does not discuss his sexual orientation (the members of the press did it for him ad nauseam) unless that is what he refers to with these lines: "sometimes praising a mother/who knew how to give, or forgiving a father who couldn't give what you wanted."The poem closes with these lines:We head home: through the gloss of rain or weightof snow, on the plum blush of dusk, but always, alwayshome, always under one sky, our sky. And alwaysone moon like a silent drum tapping on every rooftopand every window, of one country--all of us--facing the stars. Hope--a new constellation waitingfor us to map it, waiting for us to name it--together.Is the poem a great poem? Will it be remembered years from now? I do not know since I can hardly be objective. From where I sit, Mr. Blanco certainly holds his own with the poets who have been commissioned to write poems for recent presidential inaugurations: James Dickey for President Carter ("The Strength of Fields"), Maya Angelou ("On the Pulse of the Morning" and Miller Williams ("Of History and Hope") for President Clinton, and Elizabeth Alexander ("Praise Song for the Day, Praise Song for Struggle") for the first inauguration of President Obama. I do not expect any of these poets to outshine Robert Frost (although the writer Pat Conroy had the temerity to say that James Dickey has written the best book of poetry in America) who recited "The Gift Outright" from memory at President Kennedy's inauguration ("The land was ours before we were the land's") after the wind and sunlight prevented him from reading the poem "Dedication" that he had written for the event. Should we read too much into the fact that no recent Republican president has had poetry at his inauguration? I would have expected Ronald Reagan, a former actor, to have gone down that road since he read a poem "High Flight" by John Gillespie Magee after the tragedy of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986.Two of my friends did not care for Mr. Blanco's poem. Every gay friend I asked, however, even those who ordinarily do not care for poetry, thought it was a beautiful poem and was moved by it. As I too was moved by both the hearing and later reading of the poem several times, I wished that my dear friend and former colleague Ken Brown who loved poetry as much as anyone I ever knew could have lived to see this sea change in American history.

This book of the extraordinary poem written and performed by Cuban-American Richard Blanco for the 2nd Presidential Inauguration for Barack Obama is a very special keepsake. The historic significance of the occasion is heightened as Mr. Blanco is a man of many firsts; he is the youngest, the first Cuban-American and openly gay poet to speak at an Inauguration. I am very proud as a Cuban-American to be represented by such a gifted and thoughtful artist at the 2nd Inauguration of the 1st African-American President of the United States. I had the chance to meet Richard Blanco and he is a very personable and humble man. He read this poem as well as others with such passion and familiarity bringing the audience into his world of prose. His verses are a melding of the english and spanish languages making his storytelling relatable to the immigrant experience and celebrating that the US is truly a melting pot of various cultures.

Richard Blanco is a gifted contemporary poet. He wrote this poem for President Obama's second inauguration and, as I recall, delivered it beautifully. I ordered this booklet (it's just the one poem) in anticipation of seeing Mr. Blanco read his poems in person. The poem is lovely, encouraging and filled with the nation's spirit.

given as a gift.

Beautifully written. A descriptive poem relating to everyday life experiences. I lan to buy more copies to give as p r presents. I keep a copy in my pocketbook and read it often and always find something new that I didn't realize before. I plan to take this POEM to my Creative Writing Class as we are working on poetry.

A beautiful way to share the beautiful poem written by Richard Blanco. An essential part of any Classroom’s poetry unit. Excellent to use with visualization and details when writing.

Aside from the President being re-elected, I thought this poem was the highlight of the 2nd Presidential Inauguration for Barack Obama. After the live broadcast, I re-watched it on YouTube several times. And, while Mr. Blanco's reading of the poem was flawless, poetry, for me, resonates better from the printed page. So, I bought this little book. This poem captured the American experience of so many of us in such vivid detail. Timely and relevant, the American tale is beautifully told.

Love this book. Each time I read it something new sinks in. One Today