The Inaugural Poet

Senator Schumer: Our next distinguished guest is the poet Richard Blanco who
will share with us words he has composed for this occasion.
Richard Blanco: I had to write sort of a poem that had a little --
that had tension in it but that it was also a poem of
unity and of love and a kind of poem that the occasion demanded.
Not so much, you know, a critique or not so much
of an autobiographical stance.
And so when I was writing the poem I felt like, well, I could
reach back all the way to the pilgrims or something like that.
And I said, and so but I wanted to do something contemporary.
I wanted to do something what, I think, you know, being the
youngest poet selected.
That sense of trying to capture where our generation is now and,
of course, and I think that's evident in some of the sort of
in the air with the Administration, with Obama.
So I wanted to keep it, you know, I wanted to pay tribute
to the past but at the same time I wanted to keep
it something very contemporary.
Something that captured, you know, that one day of what is
our one day's today, you know.
So... "One Today" One sun rose on us today,
kindled over our shores, peeking over the Smokies,
greeting the faces of the Great Lakes,
spreading a simple truth across the Great Plains...