January 13, 2009 10:52 am
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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Poet Maya Angelou, who recited one of her works at Bill Clinton’s first inauguration, says she’ll be at home when Barack Obama takes the oath of office. But she says she won’t miss a minute of the ceremonies.
Angelou, 80, who as a youth lived in the southwest Arkansas town of Stamps, said she’ll be at her home in Winston-Salem, N.C., on Jan. 20, watching Obama on television.
Angelou said she is eager to hear a poem by Elizabeth Alexander, whom Obama chose to be a part of his ceremony. Angelou, the first poet to read at an inauguration since Robert Frost did so for John F. Kennedy in 1961, said she didn’t expect to be called upon again.
“It gives another person a chance to stand in that light, to have that kind of exposure, and she’s a fine poet,” Angelou said. “I’m looking forward to hearing what she’s going to say. Oh, I just know it’s going to be great.”
Angelou told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette she’ll watch with a “bowl of boiling hot soup and a big bottle of good white wine.”
“I shall enjoy those and not miss one flicker of the camera. Not one flick,” she said. “I shall be somewhere between crying and praying and being grateful and laughing when I see faces I know.”
Angelou said that she was up all night on election night, taking in every moment of Obama’s victory over Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
“When the cameras go off, that’s when I’ll go off. I don’t want to miss one thing,” she said.
Arkansas poet Miller Williams read “Of Hope and History” at Clinton’s second inaugural.
Frost, at age 86, recited “The Gift Outright” when the winter glare and a cold wind blowing his pages away kept him from reading his choice. His was the first poem performed at an inaugural.
Poet James Dickey read at an inaugural gala after Jimmy Carter was sworn in. George W. Bush did not have a poet at his inaugurals.
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