Bush's inauguration lacks poetic essence

The echo of pomp and pageantry surrounding the 43rd inauguration is fading, but there's something missing from the twang of country music and trill of Latin lyrics heard at festivities. What's missing is the composed tone of finality that lingers with the last word of a poem. \nPresident George W. Bush chose not to name an inaugural poet, ignoring a tradition that has honored the likes of Robert Frost and Maya Angelou. Although Bush delivered an eloquent inaugural address, there is a certain untouchable air of dignity -- an elevating effect -- about a great poet. His or her presence seems to challenge us to look inward. \nWe might not always understand the message within a poem, but somewhere within that mystery is a magnetism that brings listeners together. A poet would have promoted unity that cannot be achieved in a speech written for sound bytes.\nThis summer I wrote an article about a speech by Angelou, in a high school auditorium. Even on a stage worn down by tone-deaf teenagers, her words were enchanting and inspiring. I can hardly imagine what their effect would have been during former President Bill Clinton's 1993 inauguration, from the steps of the Capitol.\nA few of her words from "On the Pulse of the Morning": "Yet, today I call you to my riverside,/ If you will study war no more./ Come, clad in peace and I will sing the songs/ The Creator gave to me when I/ And the Tree and the Rock were one."\nShe creates a tone that makes the concept of performances by the marine band and army choir seem less militant, and the next years seem a bit brighter.\nAmerica can no longer claim poets such as T.S. Eliot, who once captured our imaginations and filled our football stadiums. Poets are considered to be as outmoded as the candlelight and quill pens we romanticize onto their desks. The prominence of poets in our national esteem is somewhere above belly dancers, but as the Bush entertainment team would have us believe, below Rambo. \nYes, in the scheme of inaugural festivities, Sylvester Stallone, Wayne Newton and the Rockettes were all billed above the conspicuously absent scribe.\nWe are left to look to Ricky Martin, headlining guest of the inaugural gala. As a lyricist, he's not quite Miller Williams, who closed with these words at Clinton's 1997 inauguration: "All this in the hands of children, eyes already set/ on a land we never can visit -- it isn't there yet --/ but looking through their eyes, we can see/ what our long gift to them may come to be./ If we can truly remember, they will not forget." \nWhen Bush's people decided not to scour the country for poetic talent, they probably examined the fact that Democrats -- Clinton and Kennedy -- were most renowned for poets at inaugural ceremonies. But it doesn't appear that they listened to the message their bon-bon shaking heartthrob would send on behalf of their quasi-legitimate candidate when he sang "Cup of Life": "If you really want it/ Just steal your destiny/ Right from the hands of fate/ Reach for the cup of life/ 'Cause your name is on it/ Do you really want it (Yeah!)"