Poet Elizabeth Alexander @ inauguration

Normal 0 21 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:Standaardtabel; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0pt 5.4pt 0pt 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0pt; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;}

Dear Madame,

I'm Dutch (for the language; male; 71 years old). Your poem for Obama touched me because since a while I am writing (was lecturing) on management subjects – with as underground method, okay, but also arts and spirituality. From my mother I received the spark to understand the "paradox of reality based spirituality of the informal, dynamic / provisional" - the message also of Erich Auerbachs Mimesis. The provisional is more durable because we keep our attention to it (dispositio > habitus). Realism might also be understood as the central ‘virtue’ and ‘asymptote’ of all ethics.

The programmatic symbolism of your modest poem on that great day made me breath deeper. Voilà my thanks to you and yours.

PS. With your permission I will quote your poem within the context of that great day right in the introduction of what I have to say.

Jeroen. J.M. Hommes, The Netherlands