I loved the poem. I thought it was perfect for the occasion and perfect for the man, and the nation, of the moment - a meaningful and significant follow-on from Barack's speech. "Love that casts a widening pool of light. Love with no need to preempt grievance." Simple, beautiful words, evoking a universe of possibilities, to take us "forward in that light" of love.

What ever happened to good poetry? know it's out there, but the gifted poet is rarely recognized by "those in the know". If you have to be a politically correct intelligencia to enjoy a poem (or poet) then it's time we rethink who should be receiving the accolades.

Humorous yes; inspiring no.

The benediction was a much better poem than the poem.

A farmer considers the changing sky; A teacher says, "Take out your pencils. Begin."

STOP! too funny!

I think the poem is greatness exemplified! I believe it covers anything and anywhere for itself in a time of gloom and great depression for our homeland. Love and fellowship is to be explored even more by President Obama, with mercenary example. Give it an A for justice, and more for peace, Amen.

I was waiting on something inspiring. Something to capture the essence of this day. I am still waiting.

I loved the poem. Ms. Alexander captured the moment that will truly redefine a generation of citizens, thinkers, and activists. I can't wait to see it in print in order to better contemplate it.

I think the written version of the poem is much better than her live delivery, which was really stilted and not engaging, but that the poem overall is not particularly original or compelling - teachers, pencils, bus stop, love thy neighbor-- give me a break.

Quoting Ms.(or Mrs.) Melbourne up there, "What ever happened to good poetry?" I absolutely disliked this poem, it was distasteful, dysfunctional, made absolutely NO sense, and was just all in all, poorly and illogically written. Also, that woman has poor speaking skills. His poem might have just as well been,
"Roses are red,
violets are blue,
some poems ryhme,
this one doesn't"
Honestly Barack! What WERE you thinking?

Even 2-nd grader would write better. The author of this poem should start studying and reading true poets before she attempts to share her next poem with the world. Please remember "the world is watching" - we have to strive for the best and not mediocrity.

I too loved the poem - let the new sentence begin in many languages.

I thought the poem was very appropriate it was simple, to the point aiming to capture moments, simple moments the ones that create the American way of life. I also think Elizabeth read it beautifully, clearly, slowly and her voice enhanced the words.

What an dreadful poem. I mean, it was really grim. Seen better stuff from 2nd graders.

I mean, "...picked the cotton and the lettuce". What as that meant to be? Enlightened; not!

Walt Whitman she aint!

Walt Whitman she ain't? From Whitman's "A Song for Occupations":

House-building, measuring, sawing the boards,
Blacksmithing, glass-blowing, nail-making, coopering, tin-roofing,
shingle-dressing,
Ship-joining, dock-building, fish-curing, flagging of sidewalks by flaggers,
The pump, the pile-driver, the great derrick, the coal-kiln and brickkiln,
Coal-mines and all that is down there, . . .

Etc. etc.

It was a wonderful poem. I say that having disliked Angelou and prepared to dislike Alexander. Think of the cynicism toward poetry that she had to battle. Most Americans remember disliking it in school, and the only version of it they get through the media is truly banal. Alexander is an academic poet who had to speak to the masses (and talk about masses!). She is a modern poet who had to speak to a political occasion. She managed to do both, and also to echo Obama's theme of the virtue of ordinary labor.

I found the poem incomprehensible. It felt odd with seemingly disjointed phrases thrown together with no cohesive glue that I could discern. Maybe it is merely a stylistic difference of opinion but I kept waiting for her to weave it all together and never got the feeling that she accomplished that task. Some of her phrasing was interesting, but I felt quite let down, I'm sorry to say. Maybe I was spoiled in the 90's with Maya Angelou's poem (On the Pulse of Morning).... A rock, a river, a tree...., now that was an amazing poem. In fairness though, I will seek out a copy of Alexander's poem and give it a read. Maybe in print I will find the rhythm which I could not gather from her spoken words.

I think "noise & bramble" sums it up nicely.

Obama's speech was far more poetic & inspiring.

I was also diaspointed by the musical selections.

I agree with The Evil Rush Limbaugh who said this gal sounds like a GPS unit, except GPS info makes sense. "Let us turn our humble automobile Left, then cross over the Bridge to Nowhere, drive off the overpass onto I-95, and proceed through the concrete barriers of Prejudice & Hate. Amen." Ralph Waldo Ramble-on

I enjoyed the poem. Sure, her delivery could have used some improvement (even President Obama seemed to stumble a few times during his speech and lacked some of his trademark passion and fire; I blame it on the cold), but the message behind the words was very powerful and relevant for this historic occasion.

I thought the poem was directly in keeping with what Obama was talking about, and also about the historic nature of the event. All the people upon whose backs this nation was built, the slaves, the poor, the immigrant, but all joined together looking to the light and moving into a new future? Powerful stuff for me..

Absolutely dreadful!!

If you're gonna follow one of the most (IMO) "apropos" speeches of "our" lifetime - on a world stage, it better rock my FREAKIN' world!! Now that said ..and I'm no poetry aficionado - but this is something I would have expected a student to write with the help of his/her parents and recite to their 3rd grade class and win a gold-star, or maybe even a blue ribbon. :P

I only caught a little bit of the reading of the poem itself (I was at my day job during the Inauguration) but I have since read it.

I like the poem for being plain-spoken. I feel, however, that it suffered by being read aloud. She did that "poet's voice" delivery common to MFA programs that always takes a poem away from talking and into bloodless declaiming.

Before we go into whether or not I thought the poem was good, I would like to point some of the main characteristics that define something as being a poem. I'm not one of those academics who give guidelines to work, effectively compartmentalizing literature, so without neccessarily saying where the line is, can we agree that there is indeed a line? That somewhere amongst rhetoric there should be metaphor and/or rhyme (any kind ) and/or diction and/or verse be it free or otherwise in order to make something a poem? a general cohesiveness? a story?

This poem gets a checkmark for imagery, but honestly nothing more than that. I'm not even sure we would begin to engage it with any comprehension had it not proceeded obama's speech, and either way you don't get kudos for being on subject.

A poem shouldn't just present an image or subject, it should give us more emotion and thought about the image or subject than we would have garnered by just looking at the image.

I have read some of the author's other work, and its really good, so this is an extreme disappointment. Since when is mediocrity acceptable on probably the most viewed stage in the world this century???

www.myspace.com/shadokatnj

Honestly, I was interested in everything going on during the inauguration until the presentation of this poem.

She sounded like she was trying to imitate the styles of many great poets, but couldn't pull it together into anything cohesive or comprehensive. Add that to a delivery that made it sound like she was trying to force it into some twisted form of anapestic hexameter.

All and all, it just seemed forced, like a high school student trying to be much deeper and more profound than what is actually within their abilities.

This poem is NOT original.

Try reading Walt Whitman's "I Hear America Singing." (following)

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand
singing on the steamboat deck,
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,
The wood-cutter's song, the ploughboy's on his way in the morning, or
at noon intermission or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of
the girl sewing or washing,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows,
robust, friendly,
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

THAT was the original. Geez. Seems as though she has never read the classics--or has read them too closely and decided to nearly plagiarize.

Dreadful delivery. Disjointed imagery. Chock full of cliches. Sentences of awkward construction. Lacking in emotional impact.

Critics negative of the poem: please get a copy and read the poem for yourselves. It's lovely...and more... it can lead us into "walking forward in that light."

The title and last line loop into one another and the unity and imagery of the poem feel right --like the last line of the 8th stanza: Amid everything that seems familiar to us, still --on "the Day," "We walk into that which we cannot yet see." The poem takes us from doing and speaking and discovering and appreciating and remembering the seeming commonplace of what has come before into loving....with each new day.

Certainly last Tuesday was one of the best days ever: the fulfillment of the promise of this nation, the affirmation of love, of light, of "go[ing] about our business with more than noise, going about,rather, with music and words, especially "Say it plain: that many have died for this day."

Lincoln wrote many years ago that the Civil War, perhaps, repaid the years of blood of the lash by the war years of the blood of the sword. Let's pray last Tuesday's "sharp sparkle," its "winter air" inspire us to realize now that, in our grand experiment of a country founded on "All men are created equal" "any thing can be made, any sentience begun."

Oh I do, I will praise Obama's inaugural poem--for it truly is a "Praise Song for the Day."

Please read it for yourselves.

You know, the color black is a color black to anybody with a 20/20 vision.

Now, what if you are color blind, or blind for that matter,what is black for you?

I believe the Song of Praise poem is evocative. I gave it a chance to really listen to the words, the over all message using the eyes of my heart.

It conveys the Universal truths in everyday life....which is as myriad as the colors of the rainbow.

One may dislike the poem for being so Elementary, or it may have no rhyme...but I believe the poem is beautiful. As each one of us is.

You see things because of the color of your lenses.

Truth is truth no matter wha and your version of the truth is because of what you are at the moment.

Let's give faith,hope and love a chance...

In the end, those will matter most because it will be the only things we can bring along with us.

I agree with Felicia. I was expeciting something on the line of the Maya Angelou inaugural poem. Whoa, what a disappointment. I also found the delivery less than inspiring. Ms. Alexander should have taken some delivery pointers from Ms. Angelou. Still, God bless her, she tried to deliver a "praise song for the day!" And what a praise-worthy day it was--and is!

i love barack obama

I have little respect for artists working in any medium - or anyone for that matter - who does something merely to provoke outrage or other strong negative reactions. On the other hand, if this does not happen at least occasionally as a byproduct of your work, you are not doing your job. True for painters & musicians. Movie directors. Teachers. Cops. Bus drivers. True especially for parents & poets. (But not boyfriends. No way, Otaku Girl, if you happen to read this). Based upon the lively discussion here, I would say in this respect @ least, EA did her job as a poet.
You and some of your readers may be aware of the AP's request for inaugural poems where they may find poems more to their taste. Or at least one they hate even more. Which can be even more enjoyable.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090113/ap_on_go_pr_wh/odes_to_obama_text_1
Finally, for anyone who STILL hasn't had their fill of inaugural poetry:
http://www.tucsonweekly.com/gbase/Currents/Content?oid=oid:120848
(URL to myself & other poets from under the Black Mountain's shadow who also wrote & rhymed about this historic event)
Video (very poor quality. Sorry):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_RwhFD4MiM

EDGAR ALLAN POE

One of America’s most famous writers
Was born in Boston, January of 1809.
Both his parents were failing actors
And his father was drunk most the time.

In 1810 Edgar’s dad disappeared
His mother died soon after.
A childless couple took him in
Raising him with love and laughter.

Edgar had a Negro nurse
Who brought him to her quarters.
There he listened to ghost stories
Far beyond earthly borders.

The strange tales he later wrote
May have come from her inspiration.
The words she used to describe death
Gave Poe his taste for sensation.

The Allans moved to England
Where Poe attended boarding schools.
There’s no doubt his time spent there
Sharpened his skills as tools.

Returning to Richmond and back in school
He began to compose new verse.
Heavy debts forced him to leave college
As his life took a turn for the worse.

Poe caught a ride on a coal barge to Boston
Where he was unable to find employment.
A young printer agreed to publish his poems
Giving him hope and enjoyment.

Penniless, Poe enlisted in the army
And was accepted to West Point in 29.
Poe couldn’t stand not being a writer
Self-imposing his dismissal from The Line.

Afterward he became an editor and critic
And married his cousin who was thirteen.
Six years latter he discovered she was dying
Suffering once more the unforeseen.

He went through periods of insanity
Caused by grieving and functional fall.
He smoked opium and drank too much
Till at his doorstep death would call.

Edgar Allan Poe the master of verse
Still lives in our hearts today
Famous for The Raven and other great works
May his soul rest in peace we pray.

By Conservative Poet
Tom Zart
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