re-posted by Fairfax County Public Library
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
After Robert Frost recited a poem from memory at John F. Kennedy’s 1961 festivities (the glare of the sun prevented him from reading the poem he had composed), it took 31 years before another president, Bill Clinton, asked a poet – Maya Angelou — to the podium. Next Monday, when Cuban-American poet Richard Blanco shares some verse on the west portico of the U.S. Capitol, he will succeed Elizabeth Alexander, who President Obama chose to read at his first inauguration in 2009. If you are interested in the writings of this select group of poets, here are a few collections to try:
City of a Hundred Fires by Richard Blanco
American Sublime: Poems by Elizabeth Alexander
The Bohemian Home Journal 