THE COUNTRY OF THE HOPEFUL

I watched the inauguration today. I remembered a drizzly January afternoon four years ago when I stayed behind after work, watching it in the office. Washington is of course, five hours behind us.

You know how I feel about expressing political opinion: I don’t want to do it. Either you believe today was the beginning of a wonderful new era in America, or you believe it’s the terrible start of its godless end. Amazingly, the experience of the last few years has shown us that it’s possible to see exactly the same events with our own eyes, and still take opposite views on that. Well. I’m not here to criticise one view or another, only as ever, to observe.

And I observed something fascinating today. Misplaced or not, deceived by a trap of Satan or inspired by the presence of Christ (and a lot of people would have you believe that those are the only two available options) there was actually hope in the air. And America really needs that, I’m sure you’ll agree, whichever side you’re on. There was something symbolic about the dark clouds lifting and the US Capitol being lit by the sunlight of a cool January morning.

That spirit is what I observed. And then, when the new President paused and asked the nation to pray, I felt it rise in me too; a Brit on the other side of the pond! So, I turned my observation, as well as I saw it anyway, into a poem. Because that feels like what I do.

The Country of the Hopeful

Blue skies and white clouds

One January day

A cool wind of difference

That took our breath away

The Potomac would glisten

The stones would shimmer white

The rising of the sun that seemed

Still new, and soft, and bright

Trumpets and fanfares,

Banners in the breeze

A gentle hint of summer

Through the silhouette of trees

The city stops to listen

To flags that fluttered high

And birds that find a melody

And sing it through the sky

Shadows and sunlight

Heavy hearts that ring

The anthems of tradition

Their religion made them bring

The country of the hopeful

So brave and fair and new

United in one moment

Beneath those skies of blue