Blair Library Inaugural Poem

THE ALPHABET AS PART OF WHAT WE ARE

Some of what we came from came for a chance.

Others came indentured, others in chains,

to these potential--then united--states,

except for those who crossed the Bering Straits,

but they were immigrants, too, although they came

before there was a colony to name.

We're still astounded to find ourselves here,

children of brave and slave and musketeer,

coolie and buccaneer and wetback,

what we call white and yellow, red and black,

believing in living together and learning to.

Knowing how flesh can fail, minds misconstrue,

we have to wonder how we have come this far

toward what we want to be, being what we are.

Part of what keeps us restless and dreaming ahead

is paper printed with ink, words to be read,

thoughts to be spread about, newspapers and books,

journals and magazines--for lingering looks,

on slow strolls in the garden called the brain,

at long impressions where a truth has lain.

Miller Williams

Copyright 2004