I refused to watch the previous inauguration,
More accurately called the abomination,
But teary-eyed in hopeful celebration,
I watched this one with at least half the nation.
Don’t get me wrong, I am all for Joe,
But if you ask almost anyone, the women stole the show.
Not just the performances of Lady Gaga and JLo
But a 22-year-old in a coat of sunshine yellow.
Our youngest poet laureate, with grace and poise endowed,
“The Hill We Climb” she recited out loud.
We will always remember as, standing confident and proud,
Amanda won our hearts and utterly wowed the crowd.
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100 words/RetroFlash
Barbara BucklesArtist, writer, storyteller, spy. Okay, not a spy…I was just going for the rhythm.
I call myself “an inveterate dabbler.” (And my husband calls me “an invertebrate babbler.”) I just love to create one way or another. My latest passion is telling true stories live, on stage. Because it scares the hell out of me.
As a memoirist, I focus on the undercurrents. Drawing from memory, diaries, notes, letters and photographs, I never ever lie, but I do claim creative license when fleshing out actual events in order to enhance the literary quality, i.e., what I might have been wearing, what might have been on the table, what season it might have been. By virtue of its genre, memoir also adds a patina of introspection and insight that most probably did not exist in real time.
Characterizations:
funny, moving, right on!, well written
Barb, I love this! You ARE a poet! Your poem is absolutely perfect!
You’re too kind…but thank you, Suzy!
I totally agree! The women stole the show, primarily Amanda Gorman, supernova extraordinaire, whose grace, poise, beauty and WORDS (I love that SHE said WORDS MATTER the same week it was in my story) will live in history. You’ve done a wonderful job of capturing the day, mood and feeling of so many of us in your poem, Barb. Brava!
Thanks so much, Betsy!
You said it perfectly, Barb, and in 100 words, yet, and in the wonderful hip-hoppish style that is inspiring poets today. Brava!
Thanks, Mare…so glad you caught that spoken-word rhythm! I’ll spare you the performance (LOL).
Wow indeed Bebe, brava to you and the kid with the “coat in sunshine yellow”!
Thanks, Dee!
Amazing how well you captured the spirit of the Biden inauguration in 100 words. You are a truly poet, Barb.
Aw, thanks, Laurie!
You are right about Amanda. As she finished, I exclaimed to my wife, almost in tears, “A star is born!”
Good catch, Barbara. The women have arrived, in the arts and in Joe’s government. The more the better.
Too humble a title, Barb. You are definitely a poet. And, oh my goodness, Amanda surely is, too.
Yes; women definitely stole the show at the inauguration. But Biden did just fine in his plain, solid way. And, frankly, I wouldn’t have minded if an aardvark stole the show, so long as Trump was leaving the stage.
Thanks, John…and I agree wholeheartedly about the aardvark. Or zebra. Or anything in between.
Don’t know about an aardvark, but my canine-loving friend had been wearing a T-shirt that said, ‘My dog would make a better president.’