Yesterday's "One Today"

     I am vain enough to want to post this photo of myself with the poet Richard Blanco, who wrote the heart-full poem "One Today" for Barack Obama's inauguration, and the late Robert Frost (photo in background), John F. Kennedy's inaugural poet, whose barn we were in last night in Derry, New Hampshire. However, I must not be that vain with my bedraggled fly-catcher look (doesn't anyone say, "Say cheese!" anymore?). Still, to be in the presence of the first inaugural poet (or at least his farming implements) and the most recent ...
     Here's a link to Blanco reading his poem at the 2013 inauguration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJQeBgfzVgg
    Blanco's poetry can be whimsical or serious, cultural or nature-oriented, and often autobiographical. I recommend his volume, Looking for the Gulf Motel. I use some of his poetry in a college literature course I teach for which my campus received an NEH Crossing Bridges grant, a course that blends themes of literature, diversity, and mindfulness. I am using some of Blanco's poems on naming, culture and identity, on being gay, and this inaugural poem. My students also return again and again to Robert Frost's "Mending Wall" as we consider notions of building bridges and dismantling the walls that separate us from each other, a theme these two poets share (not just the "bushy eyebrows" that Blanco said they have in common). I'm glad I could share yesterday's "today" with Richard Blanco and Robert Frost.