Inaugural Praise Poem

We Are One, originally uploaded by Presidential Inaugural Committee.

At first I was caught on the kitchen table line. Maybe because I associate kitchen tables with the International Women’s’ Writing Guild. The IWWG had its beginnings around kitchen tables. The expression “kitchen table” still applied to the frequent gatherings of IWWG members to read and listen to each other’s writing.

Today I am invited into the poem by other words –

picked the cotton and the lettuce Why not cotton and tobacco or oranges or strawberries? I wonder why she chose lettuce.

praise song – I like those two words together. I like “praise” as an adjective – but is it a verb later in the poem?

We walk into that which we cannot yet see. Much better suited to this soon to be sixty body than “leap and the net will appear” and more pleasing phonetically. But later she invites us to praise song for walking forward in that light

In today's sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun. I do love the picture of her preparing to give us this poem on a particular day – yesterday. “In today’s sharp sparkle…:” because yesterday did sparkle…She was like a designer fashioning a dress to worn on one very special occasion…to walk down the aisle or dance at an inaugural ball.

It even has a bit of Natalie Goldberg …take out your fast writing pens and begin.

I can live with this poem for a long time so I think I will begin memorizing it now.

Florida

Open Wide, originally uploaded by imustwrite.

Dr. Rapasardi worked for the Palm Beach County Mental Health Department. His office was in a green-shingled WWII vintage bungalow adjacent to the airport. Our sessions were often interrupted by the sound of planes landing and taking off.

“I was in a plane crash once” he told me as a jet passed low over his office.

“Have you flown since?”

“Sure.”

“Aren’t you afraid?” There was nothing to suggest fearlessness in his delicate five foot frame.

“No. What are my chances of being in two plane crashes?”

It was at that point I decided Dr. Rapasardi was either crazier than I was or too sane to help me.

I resolve to me more connected....

new year sunset, originally uploaded by imustwrite.

But it is hard to undo a lifetime of isolation. I am the child who at eleven years old wrote "alone I'll find true happiness, the price I'll pay is loneliness." I was the child who always had her "nose in a book" (as mama said) so I wouldn't have to talk to my family. In all the years that have followed I have forced myself into crowds, pretended to be an extrovert, feigned confidence, married,but I have always felt disconnected - preferring long walks with my dogs to noisy dinners with friends. But I am sick of my own silence. I resolve to be a part of the world again.