(THE) PRESIDENT (AS) POEM

During the past 2 years, I saw a poem campaign: just as a reader reads significance/meaning into a poem, people projected themselves (their hopes) onto Obama.

I love that Ted Berrigan quote of a poem being a poet's best self. It's refreshing to have a President demanding the best in ourselves.

In moi household awake at 5 a.m. to begin watching T.V. coverage of the Inauguration, seems an apt time to recyle a poem written on January 3, 2008:

HIS DEFINITION OF “HOPE”

“I
am a
black man named

‘Barack Obama’ and
running for
President.”

The more difficult part is after the poem is engaged by its audience. The poem is a threshold into an experience that might not have occurred without its existence, and then its audience. "Obama, The Poem" will not just depend on the President but on the country's citizens.

It will be fascinating (and no doubt something else/more) to witness -- and be part -- of this unfolding poetry experience...