{"id":403,"date":"2009-01-29T15:03:32","date_gmt":"2009-01-29T15:03:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/nucleus-import\/?p=403"},"modified":"2009-01-29T15:03:32","modified_gmt":"2009-01-29T15:03:32","slug":"marvin-bell-yes-we-can-on-the-inauguration-of-barack-obama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/marvin-bell-yes-we-can-on-the-inauguration-of-barack-obama\/","title":{"rendered":"Marvin Bell \/ Yes, We Can\/ On the inauguration of Barack Obama …"},"content":{"rendered":"
Marvin Bell\/poet<\/div>\n

\n We have been an aggregate of wishes<\/p>\n

And hopes, of the future, of blessings, of aches<\/p>\n

And pleasure, of the sacred liberties<\/p>\n

For which families have labored and grieved.
\n——
\n Yes, We Can <\/b>
\n
\n On the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States of America, Jan. 20, 2009. <\/p>\n

<\/i>
\n We are a people who began from a Yes,<\/p>\n

A nation born of the yes in the farmland,<\/p>\n

The yes engraved in the dirt and stone,<\/p>\n

In the mines, in the sea, in the machines<\/p>\n

That made girders that made cities,<\/p>\n

In the big ideas that make us human,<\/p>\n

In the yes that comes to every street<\/p>\n

Where there endures a love of forebears<\/p>\n

And a net for children when they fall,<\/p>\n

Where there was a yes to \u201cLet\u2019s try,\u201d<\/p>\n

And a yes, we can do better, and a yes<\/p>\n

That grew to enfold our largest America.<\/p>\n

Yes to the high-rise ironworker, yes<\/p>\n

To the diggers of tunnels and the pilots,<\/p>\n

Yes to those still on line, to the makers,<\/p>\n

The builders, the haulers, the guardians,<\/p>\n

To the teachers who had to make do.<\/p>\n

It is the yes that sings, and lights up the dark.<\/p>\n

It is the yes in the myriad colors of unity,<\/p>\n

And in what it means to be a grownup.<\/p>\n

In the gasoline rainbows by the curb<\/p>\n

As the parent takes his child to school<\/p>\n

And the parent takes her lunch bucket to work,<\/p>\n

And the father carries his papers<\/p>\n

And the schoolchild her homework,<\/p>\n

The carpenter her measure, the fisherman his tackle,<\/p>\n

And who dares say, no we can\u2019t, at sunup?<\/p>\n

Have you heard the cry of yes in the newborn<\/p>\n

At his mother\u2019s breast, and heard the yes<\/p>\n

Whispering in the fields at harvest time?<\/p>\n

There is a yes that will not be shushed<\/p>\n

In the head of the scientist weary at her desk<\/p>\n

And in the doctor as he studies the x-rays<\/p>\n

After hours. We are the yes from every continent,<\/p>\n

The yes born of flesh and blood that came<\/p>\n

By steerage and slave ship, the manyness<\/p>\n

Of all who were this nation\u2019s first people<\/p>\n

Or came after, by many paths, whatever it took.<\/p>\n

We have been an aggregate of wishes<\/p>\n

And hopes, of the future, of blessings, of aches<\/p>\n

And pleasure, of the sacred liberties<\/p>\n

For which families have labored and grieved.<\/p>\n

We still want to say yes, yes to equality,<\/p>\n

Yes to the best in us, yes and yes to the idea<\/p>\n

That we will be judged by what we do for others<\/p>\n

For free, and so we have said yes, and yes again,<\/p>\n

One nation, one people, and yes, we can. <\/p>\n

\n – Marvin Bell <\/p>\n

\n[Marvin Bell, who served two terms as the State of Iowa\u2019s first Poet Laureate, wrote this poem at the request of an Obama supporter.] <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have been an aggregate of wishes And hopes, of the future, of blessings, of aches And pleasure, of the sacred liberties For which families have labored and grieved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":546,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/546"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}