Praise for The Inaugural Poet, January, 2009

Perhaps it’s an impossible task
On an impossible day. A young poet
Fixes her gaze along the plaza,

Looks at this latest version of America in the eyes,
Looks in the camera at all the places we’ve touched
Or torched.

Sees who’s come to this roll call:
The out of the wood-works, the I never even dreams,
The I never thought I’d live this longs.

Stands in the sharp report of weak January sun.
The poet probably knows
This family is hers.

The poet probably knows
Before she cuts history to forty-two lines,
Before the capitol has more proof
Of what bullets and ropes couldn’t stop,

She has to straighten her back. She needs to take
A deep breath. A black woman is here.
All the black women in her are here to sing.
© Cornelius Eady

Cornelius Eady’s latest book of poems, Hardheaded Weather (Marian Wood/Putnam) was nominated for an 2008 NAACP Image Award. He is co-founder of Cave Cavem and teaches at the University of Notre Dame.

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