Poetry Friday: "Praise Song for the Day"

Head over to Kathryn Apel's blog,
for this week's round-up of poetic goodness.

 Eleven years ago this month was an auspicious day for our country, the inauguration day of President Barack Obama. I love Elizabeth Alexander's inaugural poem, "Praise Song for the Day," shared on that occasion. And in the spirit of continuing to share poems about light* (my OLW), I offer up the concluding words to her poem:

"  . . .       What if the mightiest word is love? 

Love beyond marital, filial, national,

love that casts a widening pool of light,

love with no need to pre-empt grievance.

In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air,

any thing can be made, any sentence begun.

On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp,

praise song for walking forward in that light."

You can read the entire poem by clicking on the title of the poem. When I searched for the poem, I found this remembrance of that day from an article in The New Yorker, "A Poet's Tale from Obama's First Inaugural," written in 2017.

Finally, if you're interested in savoring more of Alexander's words

check out her lovely memoir, "The Light of the World."

*Several readers commented that they were unable to read the words when I put the used yellow print for the word light. I'm hoping that giving it a yellow background will remedy that problem, while still allowing me to highlight my OLW. Let me know if this works better.