January, 20, 1993. The televised inauguration of William Jefferson Clinton. Maya Angelou read, from the podium, a poem she’d written at Bill Clinton’s request. Time stopped as we listened to this iconic black American. This friend of Dr. King and Malcolm X. This civil rights activist, novelist, poet, teacher. We were told by Dr. Angelou:

…

Here on the pulse of this new day
You may have the grace to look up and out
And into your sister’s eyes,
And into your brother’s face,
Your country,
And say simply
Very simply
With hope—
Good morning.

We’re just moments away from another catalytic event in America’s history. We can’t predict the success or failure of Barack Obama’s leadership or policy decisions. We can, however, recognize that in his election to the presidency, we’ve made a distinct choice. A choice we can’t take back. Maya Angelou’s welcome to a new day is more meaningful today than it was sixteen years ago.

Barack Obama has asked Elizabeth Alexander to write an occasional poem for his inauguration. In doing so, he becomes just the third president, joining John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton, to have a poet deliver a work at a presidential inauguration. For her efforts, Elizabeth Alexander joins the elite ranks of Robert Frost, Maya Angelou, and Miller Williams.

What will Dr. Alexander say? Will my children, who are much younger than I was at Bill Clinton’s inauguration, remember her words and the gravity of the moment the way I remember January, 1993? Only time will tell. For now, I’m just planning to appreciate the poem and the fact that our upcoming president thought to ask for one.

Maya Angelou, January 20, 1993:

“Do you know what a Humanist is? I am honorary president of the American Humanist Association, having succeeded the late, great science fiction writer Isaac Asimov in that functionless capacity. We Humanists try to behave well without any expectation of rewards or punishments in an afterlife. We serve as best we can the only abstraction with which we have any real familiarity, which is our community.

We had a memorial service for Isaac a few years back, and at one point I said, "Isaac is up in Heaven now." It was the funniest thing I could have said to a group of Humanists. I rolled them in the aisles. It was several minutes before order could be restored. And if I should ever die, God forbid, I hope you will say, 'Kurt is up in Heaven now.' That's my favorite joke.”

Goodbye, Kurt. We'll miss you.