THIS PRESS RELEASE CONTAINS THE OFFICIAL AND AUTHORIZED VERSION OF THE POEM
SAINT PAUL, Minn., Feb. 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Poet
Elizabeth Alexander captured the spirit of
Barack Obama’s historic inauguration today when she read the poem “Praise Song for the Day.”
Barack Obama is the forty-fourth president of the United States of America.
Graywolf Press will release a commemorative chapbook edition of the poem on February 6, 2009, with an initial print run of 100,000 copies.
Elizabeth Alexander crafted the poem for the occasion, drawing inspiration from poets such as
Gwendolyn Brooks,
Robert Hayden, and
Walt Whitman. Alexander is one of our nation’s most eloquent poets, and she spoke at the most closely watched inauguration in U.S. history. Alexander is the fourth poet in United States history to read at a presidential inauguration. Previous inaugural poets were
Robert Frost at the inauguration of
John F. Kennedy, and
Maya Angelou and
Miller Williams at the inaugurations of
William Jefferson Clinton.
Graywolf will publish a chapbook, Praise Song for the Day: A Poem for
Barack Obama’s Presidential Inauguration, a stylish commemorative edition in honor of the historic occasion. Graywolf will produce a small, elegant volume with French flaps on heavy, uncoated stock, with a silver foil stamp. The chapbook will serve as a cherished reminder of this historic presidential event. Alexander’s poem challenges our citizens to “look to something better down the road” and sing a “praise song for walking forward in that light.”
Elizabeth Alexander was born in New York City and raised in Washington, D.C. She is the author of four collections of poetry, The Venus Hottentot, Body of Life, Antebellum Dream Book, and American Sublime, which was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. She is also the author of two collections of essays, The Black Interior and Power and Possibility: Essays, Interviews, Reviews, and a collection of poems for young adults, Miss Crandall’s School for Young Ladies and Little Misses of Color (co-authored with
Marilyn Nelson). She recently edited The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks. Alexander has read her work across the United States and in Europe, the Caribbean, and South America, and her poetry, short stories, and critical prose have been published in numerous periodicals and anthologies. She has received many awards and honors, most recently the Alphonse Fletcher, Sr. Fellowship for work that “contributes to improving race relations in American society and furthers the broad social goals of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954,” and the 2007 Jackson Prize for Poetry, awarded by Poets and Writers. Alexander is a professor of African American Studies, English, and American Studies at Yale University, and also teaches in the Cave Canem Poetry Workshop. She lives with her family in New Haven, Connecticut.
Graywolf Press is an independent, not-for-profit publisher dedicated to the creation and promotion of thoughtful and imaginative contemporary literature essential to a vital and diverse culture. Graywolf has published significant books of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and translations for thirty-five years, and has become one of the leading literary publishers in the country. Poetry has always remained at the heart of our work. For more information, please visit our Web site: www.graywolfpress.org.
Praise Song for the Day
A Poem for
Barack Obama’s Presidential Inauguration
Elizabeth Alexander
Each day we go about our business,
walking past each other, catching each other’s
eyes or not, about to speak or speaking.
All about us is noise. All about us is
noise and bramble, thorn and din, each
one of our ancestors on our tongues.
Someone is stitching up a hem, darning
a hole in a uniform, patching a tire,
repairing the things in need of repair.
Someone is trying to make music somewhere,
with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum,
with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.
A woman and her son wait for the bus.
A farmer considers the changing sky.
A teacher says, Take out your pencils. Begin.
We encounter each other in words, words
spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed,
words to consider, reconsider.
We cross dirt roads and highways that mark
the will of some one and then others, who said
I need to see what’s on the other side.
I know there’s something better down the road.
We need to find a place where we are safe.
We walk into that which we cannot yet see.
Say it plain: that many have died for this day.
Sing the names of the dead who brought us here,
who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges,
picked the cotton and the lettuce, built
brick by brick the glittering edifices
they would then keep clean and work inside of.
Praise song for struggle, praise song for the day.
Praise song for every hand-lettered sign,
the figuring-it-out at kitchen tables.
Some live by love thy neighbor as thyself,
others by first do no harm or take no more
than you need. 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.
Copyright (C) 2009 by Elizabeth Alexander. All rights reserved. Reprinted with the permission of Graywolf Press, Saint Paul, Minnesota. A chapbook edition of Praise Song for the Day will be published on February 6, 2009.
SOURCE
Graywolf Press
