And it's kind of, you know, as I look back on my life, as we all do, you kind of think, 'Is this some kind ... of foreshadowing, of course, of what my work as a poet would be obsessed with?' But Richard Blanco’s sparse, simple yet sweeping inaugural poem “One Today,” may have provided one of the inauguration ceremony’s most memorable moments, and stood as a rare break from the staid custom of ceremony that the rest of the afternoon brought.

Richard Blanco has written a new national anthem to mark the two-month anniversary of the El Paso, Texas, shooting as well as the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month. One sun rose on us today, kindled over our shores,peeking over the Smokies, greeting the facesof the Great Lakes, spreading a simple truthacross the Great Plains, then charging across the Rockies.One light, waking up rooftops, under each one, a storytold by our silent gestures moving behind windows.

Blanco is the first immigrant, Latino and openly gay poet chosen to read at an inauguration and, at 44, also the youngest. hide caption. “While Blanco is careful not to turn the poem into a confessional act, since its purpose is largely civic, he makes it true to his own experience in referring to his mother’s sacrifices as a cashier and his father’s as a cane cutter,” said Jahan Ramazani, an editor of The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry. And then eventually when I was about 3 or 4 we settled down in Miami. Images just started coming to me. Blanco is the first gay, first Latinx, and first immigrant inaugural poet — and his work often speaks from the intersections of these identities. First, there was the presence of Blanco himself. Click through to read the full poem. or the last floor on the Freedom Tower of the Great Lakes, spreading a simple truth I remember thinking to myself, 'You did it, America!' always under one sky, our sky. So by the time I was about 2 or 3 months old, I had figuratively and literally been in three countries, and could probably have claimed citizenship in any one of the three at that moment. Hear itthrough the day's gorgeous din of honking cabs,buses launching down avenues, the symphonyof footsteps, guitars, and screeching subways,the unexpected song bird on your clothes line. weaving steel into bridges, finishing one more report In his references to hands, to breathing, to writing, and finally the naming constellations, he makes the poet’s activity emblematic of our shared humanity.”. Hear: squeaky playground swings, trains whistling,or whispers across café tables, Hear: the doors we openfor each other all day, saying: hello, shalom,buon giorno, howdy, namaste, or buenos díasin the language my mother taught me—in every languagespoken into one wind carrying our liveswithout prejudice, as these words break from my lips. Our ground, rooting us to every stalk

to teach geometry, or ring-up groceries as my mother did So as a subject I felt somewhat comfortable; but the challenge of it was how to maintain sort of that sense of intimacy and that conversational tone in a poem that obviously has to sort of encompass a whole lot more than just my family and my experience. Thank the work of our hands: It honors the Latinx lives that were lost in the terror attack, while also celebrating Hispanic culture. Other scholars of contemporary poetry had similar praise. ", On his poem "América" — told in the voice of a 7-year-old girl whose family always serves pork and yucca on Thanksgiving — and how it tackles the complex world he grew up in. buses launching down avenues, the symphony

onto the steps of our museums and park benches

told by our silent gestures moving behind windows. Since then, only three other poets have taken part in subsequent inaugural ceremonies: Maya Angelou, Miller Williams and Elizabeth Alexander. To this day, my mom will make a turkey, but she always has a backup pork roast in the oven, just in case, and for those that don't eat turkey. “[It] was especially well suited to the occasion,” added Ramazani. that loves you back, sometimes praising a mother One sky, toward which we sometimes lift our eyestired from work: some days guessing at the weatherof our lives, some days giving thanks for a lovethat loves you back, sometimes praising a motherwho knew how to give, or forgiving a fatherwho couldn't give what you wanted. One sun rose on us today, kindled over our shores, Richard Blanco has written a new national anthem to mark the two-month anniversary of the El Paso, Texas, shooting as well as the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month. on our way to clean tables, read ledgers, or save lives-


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