I. To the States
Walt Whitman
To Identify the 16th, 17th, or 18th Presidentiad.
Why reclining, interrogating? why myself and all drowsing?
What deepening twilight—scum floating atop of the waters,
Who are they as bats and night-dogs askant in the capitol?
What a filthy Presidentiad! (O South, your torrid suns! O North,
your arctic freezings!)
Are those really Congressmen? are those the great Judges? is that
the President?
Then I will sleep awhile yet, for I see that these States sleep,
for reasons;
(With gathering murk, with muttering thunder and lambent shoots
we all duly awake,
South, North, East, West, inland and seaboard, we will surely awake.)
II. Prayer for Inaugural Events
Gene Robinson
2 comments:
I think this was omitted not because Gene Robinson is gay, but because the prayer itself is just too honest, too direct.
I think you're right. It doesn't pander; it's not crowd-pleasing or tidy. It's pretty lengthy, too. I'm glad at least that people are passing it around on the web.
(I've been meaning to write you back--a lot going here.)
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