Part II. Background to Inaugural Poem for President Obama & What Should be the Title?

Click here for An Open Letter to President Obama.

***Note: The Inaugural Poem for Barack Obama (written with love) has been reformatted and revised for better rhyme, rhythm, and hopefully, enjoyment.*** 

**Once more, I have finished reformatting the inaugural poem's stanzas so that they read better. Also improved the rhythm, meter, and rhyme. The spacing converts all funky with HTML when you're not an expert. Trying to pin down the formatting, spacing (spaces, space before and after lines, between paragraphs, all very important for the look and read of a poem, I could go on for hours on spacing and love E.E. Cummings) is like trying to scratch a moving itch!**

**Want a copy with spacing hopefully stays put? on Amazon, entitled "An Inaugural Poem for President Barack Obama" or click here to go to Amazon directly without passing go!*

So far, I've received a few suggestions:

"The Road to America"
"America: Past, Present, and Future"
"I Took His Hand Because I Had Faith In Him" (lol)

Okay, so I've only got one suggestion, and it isn't so subtle as all the other inaugural titles, like: "Dedication" and "On the Pulse of the Morning", or Elizabeth Alexander's "Of History and Hope".

How about: Freedom and Fate? No, The Roads of America? Help me out here folks, referring to this as "My Inaugural Poem for B.O." is getting tiresome, or maybe it's not...

Okay, back to some background info for the rest of the poem. Now where was I...

The “road’s most uncertain bend” is the outcome of the Civil War, when our country was closest to dissolving. Lincoln held America steadfast during the Civil War and refused to let the South secede, believing that the United States was better as a whole, than split apart. He said:

A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.
Lincoln had faith in the direction he moved our country, and he was right to have faith in a free America. Freedom, today, however, takes so many turns. It seems that everybody has a freedom they claim is being infringed upon. Unfortunately, one man's freedom is another man's chains. So, how does limiting the right of two consensual adults to practice sex the way they want, see Lawrence v. Texas, further the Constitution? Sodomy as a practice, people, was not forbidden in the Bible. Sodom was a city in Old Testament, whose people practiced wicked ways and was punished. There was no mention of this type of sexual behavior. The word "sodomy" developed when Religigos took the ancient city of Sodom and ascribed to it what it believed to be wicked behavior.

Increasingly more and more after each election, Americans are petitioning to secede from the United States. I think it only seems more because the Internet makes it easier to express your discontent. When Texas petitioned to secede from the U.S. last month after the election, Austin, the college town, and hence liberal stronghold, petitioned the administration to secede from Texas if Texas succeeded in seceding from the United States, lol! Go Longhorns!

No sooner than I took his hand,

                                           then he was gone again.

And saw he held me steadfast on

                      the road’s most uncertain bend.

I shifted as one road descended

                                    while the other rose.

One road rising while the other road falling refers to the increasing bipolar views of Americans. Each side thinks the other is going to hel* in a handbasket while his own side is what makes America great. Since the Civil War, except during periods when we were a strong front against outsiders, e.g., World Wars, the U.S. has grown increasingly red and blue. The Brothers’ wounds that they received during the Civil War is not wounding. Sometimes, extremists in the red and blue states seem acrimonious enough to break away from the Union.

On each a Brother thrust out a wound

                           that grew and refused to mend.

The road to justice has not been easy since the Civil War. Justice, often portrayed as a blindfolded woman holding scales, is lying (laying?) between two roads, one conservative, one liberal, one right, one more right. Her blindfold is dripping red blood from the lives lost during the Civil Rights Movement, Church bombings, forced integration. Nonetheless, Americans have an abiding faith in blind justice.

Between the roads a women lay

                                      a blindfolded bound her head.

She lay as if she slumbered through

                                  the blindfold dripping red.

Her scales were of the lightest touch

                               a whisper broke the balance

The slightest swing on either side 

                                 changed who came out ahead.

In the last few elections, most notably in 2000 which resulted in the famous Gore vs. Bush, the Swing States are so important that the majority of election donation funds are routed there. People in strongly Blue and Red States hardly see any of the vicious, truth-distorting ads that run continuously for months prior to each election. The scales that swing one way or another at the slightest breeze symbolize how fickle some of the electorate can be. If you read Nate Silver’s 538 blog, you know about tipping point states, and how only a handful of states can make the difference in a general election. Is anyone thinking popular election here?

“There is no justice,” did the Blind Lady
                                                       state with Warranty.
“For even with my blindfold 'tis

                                                    near impossible to see.

Yeah, it’s hard to met out justice. Laws are overinclusive, underinclusive. Three-strikes laws that require mandatory 25 year jail sentence on a third offense no matter what threw a homeless man in jail for stealing a bottle of vitamins because he was starving in the winter.

That’s why I say regardless of right or left or right or wrong (a little off topic but my ADD says see Princess Boo Wakes Up on the Wrong Side of the Bed in satirical prose and children’s rhyming poem form). Again, regardless of right or wrong, whichever side “rules” should take care of the poor and week because there is no better measure of the greatness of a society than the degree to which it takes care of its poor, old, sick, and vulnerable. I don’t know if this is attributable to anyone in particular, but have often heard that said. I agree.

Only clincher is, a small subset say abortion is the most important fight to fight (so they vote Republican), others say the poor (so they vote Democrat), others cry we have to protect the richest 2% from higher taxes (so they vote Romney), and so it never ends…
There is no power equal to:

                                   the strong who shield the poor.”

And that is the most that justice

                                       without sight can guarantee.

Okay, Ladies and Gents, it's time to let your friends know 'cuz wouldn't it be super-duper cool if I could read this at the inauguration? You can say, hey, I was the 34th person to read that poem, ever! And now they make poor students memorize it in school! So, if you love Obama and want a beautiful inaugural poem for him, you know what to do! (I don't because I'm old and computer illiterate, that's why I'm always updating (always finding something wrong with the formatting) so sorry to bugya'!)

Glad to see a visitor from Brazil! It's a Small, Small World! Yup, I have this song on my MP3 player! =-)

Find me on Facebook

My Inaugural Poem for President Obama on Amazon Be the First to Buy the New and Improved First Edition!

Part IV Explanatory Notes, Meaning Behind Inaugural Poem

If you didn't like this Inaugural Poem, I guarantee you'll hate A Tale of Two Romneys!

The Huffington Post compares past Inaugural Poems

If you didn't like this inaugural poem, you most definitely won't like A Tale of Two Romneys.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

MY OTHER WRITINGS:

What I Said When I Saw Salvador Dali’s Metamorphosis of Narcissus

Salvador Dali's Painting of the Metamorphosis of Narcissus

Princess Boo Wakes Up on the Wrong Side of the Bed

Part I: Background to Inaugural Poem for Obama by Ssal

Click here for An Open Letter to President Obama.

This Inaugural Poem was written in November 2012 (before the presidential election and revised since) in honor of President Obama's Inauguration January 21, 2013.

***Newer: I have finished reformatting the inaugural poem's stanzas so that they read better. Also improved the rhythm, meter, and rhyme by 35%. The spacing converts all funky with HTML when you're not an expert. Trying to pin down the formatting, spacing (spaces, space before and after lines, between paragraphs, all very important for the look and read of a poem, I could go on for hours on spacing and love E.E. Cummings) is like trying to scratch a moving itch!*** 

**Posted a copy (whose spacing hopefully stays put!) on Amazon, entitled "An Inaugural Poem for President Barack Obama" or click here to go to Amazon directly without passing go!

Okay, folks, as usual, I don't set out to write anything. It just writes me. After weeks of being an election junkie, reading, watching, breathing in all things election, especially the polls that came out each morning (I would stay up all night to hit the refresh button on Real Clear Politics as they uploaded the new polls in real time. They were the usually the first to publish an election poll (Rasmussen was so bias for the Republicans and okay, ABC was probably leaning toward the liberals). Anyway, all those news stories, videos I would watch made me start dreaming election. Really. I tossed and turned after the first presidential debate because I couldn’t sit still during the slight fiasco. I was like: “Obama, wake up! Don’t you know some people vote based on who they’d rather have a beer with? How do you think Gore lost? (Besides the fault of the Supreme Court and Kennedy, of course!)

If you haven't read it yet, it's posted immediately below or here is the link to: An Inaugural Poem by Ssal Nogard. I am still deciding on a name, any suggestions? Please email me! Remember to "like it" on Facebook even if you don't like it!

Oh yeah, if you didn't catch my somewhat satirical poem for Mitt Romney, A Tale of Two Romneys, and accompanying Literary Critique For Dummies, er, I mean Literary Critique BY Dummies, here's a chance to catch up!

Still writing…updating soon…Remember to forward this link to your Facebook Friends, many thanks!

I'm back! Had to grab a bite to eat; I work best on a full stomach!

So, after weeks of election dreaming, I started to get a phrase turning in my head--it wouldn’t go away!--over and over again until scribbled down some notes. It was an image of a hand being held out and some words: “Will you go with me…” and “will you go with fate…?” I don’t know if those two questions meant the same thing or if they were contradictory, dunno, but then the rhythm got stuck in my head: “Will you go with me, he said, or will you go with fate?” Whoah. I was in trouble now.

“Will you go with me,” he said, “or will you go with fate?”

So I gulped, and I said, “I will go with you, whoever you are!” But by this time I sorta’ figured that it was Obama’s hand that was extended out to me. It’s a very elegant hand, with long, fine fingers, if you have never noticed, lol! For real! Take a peek: Photo of Pres Obama's hands typing #My2k answers @ whitehouse: http://pic.twitter.com/DhsfAN1b. And then, and then, there appeared before me as the mists of my mind started to recede, a road, I supposed because the question asked about “going” with someone so a road makes sense. But it was a long road and I couldn’t see to the end, so trite and symbolic, you say. I agree. There’s nothing new about standing and looking at a lot of roads, trying to choose the best one to take.

In my inaugural poem, the “many roads both left and right” (see infra) refer to conservatives and liberals. “They wound among themselves before me” represents the tug-of-war of both parties but at the same time the fact that some ideologies are the same, social Libertarian and Democratic views, or fiscal Republican and Libertarian views.

One evening I stood facing

                              many roads both left and right.

They wound among themselves before me

                                         with the pending night.

I peered closely but could not see

                                  the path that each road ran.

Only that each path rose to

                               its neighboring distant height.

“Each path rose to its neighboring distant height” reflects that no matter which party is in the White House or controls Congress, America still has done pretty well for herself!

The next section, delineated by my usual asterisk and squiggly symbols begins the journey (oh no, not another poem about a journey!) The hand extended is George Washington, who has the face of Battle and Destiny. And no, he wasn’t full of hate; I just mean that there are a bunch of ideas, thoughts, and feelings that a President represents in a diverse country. Since Washington was a great warrior and also didn’t want to be King of the World, I refer to him as the “Gentle Giant”.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

I stepped forward pressed by voices

                                    that refused to wait.

And saw a hand extended filled

                          with lines of love and hate.

I looked up into the face of Battle

                                          and of Destiny.

“Will you come with me,” He said,

                          “or will you go with Fate?”

The laughter of Ben Frank is, of course, Benjamin Franklin, Renaissance Man extraordinaire, inventor of the bifocals, harnessing electricity from lightning, and wrote a ton of famous quotes that I resented growing up, such as “The early bird gets the worm.” Turns my stomach every time I hear it. Also, humble enough not to be president ‘cause everyone knows he could’ve in a heartbeat if he had wanted to, he was so popular. Thom J. is Thomas Jefferson, another uber-enlightened American who wrote some awesome stuff, like the Declaration of Independence, which I loved memorizing in grade school.

I took the Gentle Giant’s hand

                                 and stepped through the hazy gray,

and thought I heard the laughter

                       of Ben Frank and Thom J. along the way.

Taking the Washington's hand after he asks whether I will follow him means that everyone had faith in George Washington, the only president to ever win 100% of electoral votes. Of course, no one opposed him for president. With Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson nearby, who wouldn't have faith that America was on the right path to greatness?

The “two terms” refers to the fact that George Washington stepped down from office after only two terms, heretofore something unheard of when he could have been King of the World forever. A great precedent for most progressive nations in the modern world. With forefathers like these, who wouldn't have faith in America's future?

After two terms we met a fork

                           that ran red along both roads.

On each side were countless voices

                                          pressing me to stay.

The fork means that the country is started to shift toward two distinct ideologies and preferences. The red foreshadows the American Civil War. The “countless voices” are those that warn against the cost of war.

The gentle giant nudged me forward

                                        and warned me not to wait.

I stumbled along the reddened roads

                                Both marked with love and hate.

Ahead I saw a face whose hair

                               was ruddy from the roads.

The ruddy face is Abraham Lincoln’s, who was a redhead, Celtic features. “No sooner than I took his hand, then he was gone again,” is a reference to his assassination. President Lincoln preferred to be kind to the South during Reconstruction, but after he was assassinated, the Northern Congressmen beat down hard on the South. (Gone with the Wind is a nice story.) Lincoln said, “I have always found that mercy bears greater fruits than strict justice.” (see New Lyrics to Led Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy (Congratulations on being honored at the Kennedy Center!))

His hand held out to hasten me

                                      before I was too late.

No sooner than I took his hand,

                                 then He was gone again.

Again, I take his hand because Lincoln was another president who many placed their faith in because he made the right decisions to the hard choices.

'Kay, gotta' take a break. Time for dinner and I haven't even had lunch! BRB....

Friend me Facebook!

Part IV Explanatory Notes, Meaning Behind Inaugural Poem

Here is a link at TeacherVision to Other Inaugural Poems from great poets like Robert Frost for J.F.K. and Maya Angelou for  B.O., yeah!

The Huffington Post compares past Inaugural Poems

MyInaugural Poem for President Obama on Amazon Be the First to Buy it, (however dubious a distinction!)

What I Said When I saw Salvador Dali's Metamorphosis of Narcissus

Princess Boo Wakes Up on the Wrong Side of the Bed