The inauguration of a new president just seems to be a fitting time for poetry, and so 10 American poets accepted the AP's invitation to come up with a little something to mark Barack Obama's ascension to the presidency.Read them all here.
The poems came from an eclectic assortment of American wordsmiths, ranging from a former poet laureate and a Pulitzer Prize winner to a self-described "cowboy poet." IHT
Digital poet Christopher Funkhouser created 3 poems that you can SEE. They are definitely unique and I think I liked them, the first one, anyway.
What's interesting are the excuses of the people who were invited to write a poem but didn't:
New Yorker Sharon Olds deemed her efforts unworthy.Here's Ted Newman's:
"It's as I suspected," she e-mailed. "I'm not able to come up with anything near good enough, tho I used a lot of paper!"
Andrei Codrescu, who was born in Romania and became a U.S. citizen in 1981, wasn't one even to venture a try.
"I voted for Obama, but I grew up under Ceausescu," Codrescu wrote of the former Romanian dictator. "The idea of writing poems for people in power gives me the creeps."
PLEA TO THE PRES
BAILOUTS FOR THE BIG GUYS
BUY BACK THEIR ROTTED FRUIT
FORGET THE CANOPY OF GOLD
IT'S THE PLATINUM PARACHUTE.
NO ONE INDICTS THE AUTHORS
GUYS LIKE FRANK AND DODD
THEY SAY SHOW ME THE MONEY
WE'LL BAIL YOU OUT BY GOD.
THE FRED AND FANNY WATCHDOGS
WITH OUR MONEY PLAY SO LOOSE
THEY BORROW US INTO SERFDOM
AS THEY KILL THE GOLDEN GOOSE.
THEY POSTURE AND PONTIFICATE
AS THEY DIVIDE THE LOOT
THEN REWARD THE BIG CONTRIBUTORS
WITH PLATINUM PARACHUTES.
THE DOUBLESPEAK AND DOUBLETALK
OF LEADERS PSUEDO-BRAVE
MORTAGAGE CHILDREN'S FUTURES
AS THEY TAX US TO THE GRAVE.
THANKS TO CORRUPT LEADERSHIP
AND IGNORANCE TO BOOT
THEY'LL SAVE US THE UNWASHED MASSESS
WITH PURE LEAD PARACHUTES.
SO PLEASE MR. OBAMA
DON'T LET THEM PLAY THEIR GAMES
DON'T LET THE LIES CONTINUE
DON'T LET THEM HIDE THE BLAME.
BE THE PRESIDENT OUR COUNTRY NEEDS
LET'S REALLY REARRANGE
THE POLITICAL HYPOCRACY
KEEP YOUR WORD AND BRING US CHANGE.
--By Ted Newman.
