Discussions

I write to you with a simple request—would you engage with me in dialogue? I have been trying to make sense of the effect that Obama’s speeches have had on me over this past year. He has moved me to tears by his words. Here is the only poem I have ever written. The words feel inadequate. I have tried to use history, religion, and sociology as my guide, yet feel that I have come up short. What would you add to capture this historic event in verse?

I feel so blessed to live in this time.

Keith Wright

If you see my tears
by Keith Wright
January 17, 2009

On Inauguration Day I may cry,
but I will not be sad.
On this day I will not feel the sadness of the slave
nor the sadness of the black veteran
who returned home from brave battles for freedom
only to find how little freedom he himself had.

On Inauguration Day I may cry,
but I will not be sad.
On this day I will not feel the sadness of the black prisoner
nor that of the black child
who saw his friend gunned down in a drive-by
in the street on which they used to play.

On Inauguration Day I may cry,
but I will not be sad.
On this day I will not have the sadness of the civil rights veterans
who were convinced after Jesse that this day would never come,
nor will I have the sadness of the families of Medgar, or Martin, or Malcolm
who gave great sacrifice that their people might be free.

No. On Inauguration Day if you see my tears
know that these are the tears channeling through my soul
of countless good people who marched and struggled,
and they are the tears that come when something is so beautiful it overwhelms a meager soul,
with the joy and hope and realization that all things are possible, amen.