New year, new administration, new blog. Makes sense, right?
Yesterday, at the inauguration of Barack Obama, the poet Elizabeth Alexander read a poem she wrote for the occasion called “Praise Song for the Day.” Among many beautiful images: the Obama girls, the helicopter carrying the Bushes making its slow ascent; beautiful words: “The red man can get ahead, man,” “The woman who brung me”; and beautiful sounds: Aretha, Yo-Yo, Itzhak, Obama’s voice, the shrieking crowds, the marching bands; I thought Alexander’s poem was beautiful. It reaffirmed for me that there is room for beauty and eloquence, and dare I say, art, in politics and in our country–that they are part of the foundation of America. The particular line that embodies the hope I felt yesterday due to the seismic shift I feel is happening in this country is:
In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.
Maybe it’s the sharp sparkle (how did she know the day would be as sharply sparkly as it was?); maybe it’s the allusion to winter’s freezing weather and subsequent seasonal depression…economic depression…inauguration hangover; maybe it’s the getting back to basics sentiment: Make something. Write.
So I’m writing. I have grand ideas for this blog. All the failed pitches, the ideas that evaporate into the ether, the silly and the dead serious alike, will be collected here for whatever small segment of the world chooses to read them. It’s the least I can do to fulfill the call-to-arms.