a hole in a uniform, patching a tire, repairing the things in need of repair. Someone is trying to make music somewhere, with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum, with cello, boom box, harmonica, ...

Each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each others' eyes or not, about to speak or speaking. All about us is noise. All about us is noise and bramble, thorn and din, each ...

Editor's note: Elizabeth Alexander is a professor of English and African-American studies at Yale University. I rise to defend Elizabeth Alexander's inaugural poem. Members of the vanguard of modern ...

The inaugural poem — “Praise Song for the Day: A Poem for Barack Obama’s Presidential Inauguration” — was read by its author, Elizabeth Alexander, a Yale University professor of African-American ...