Sunday, January 4, 2009

What of 2009?

No New Year resolutions any more. I have made, kept and broken so many resolutions since 1947 (well 1953 actually) that there seems little point.

A strange beginning to the year, a mixture of apprehension because of the economic downturn and the war in Gaza with some hope because of the election of Barach Obama in the USA. He will certainly be a change from the present incumbent but it remains to be seen if it will make the huge difference some people seem to expect.

Obama has chosen African-American poet Elizabeth Alexander described as "a relatively unknown poet in her mid-forties" to read a poem at his inauguration on 20 January. This tradition of having a poet read at the presidential inauguration goes back to Kennedy. Famously then Robert Frost was unable to read his poem because of the light and recited his "The Gift Outright" from memory.


Elizabeth Alexander homepage here.
Guardian news item here.
Poetry Foundation item on Alexander here.
Poets.org item on Alexander here.
Picture from this site.

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