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! =-)

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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.

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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