A recap of the frenetic weeks between his selection as the inaugural poet for Barack Obama's second presidential term and his reading at the ceremony as well as an elaboration of how his life is reflected in the poem he read there, For All of Us, One Today is an uplifting reminder of the best of the U.S.
Blanco was the youngest of all the inaugural poets, as well as the first Latino, the first immigrant and the first openly gay poet invited to address the nation at the ceremony. As he thought about what he wanted his poem to say, Blanco asked himself: "What do I love about America?" Composing the three poems the inaugural committee required, he thought about the courage of his parents, coming from Cuba to the U.S. in 1968, the acceptance and sense of community he and his husband, Mark, felt when they moved to Maine and the place of poetry in the national consciousness.
Besides Blanco's thoughts as he wove such lofty themes into his poems (which are presented in both English and Spanish), he shares light, personal anecdotes such as how his husband built an outdoor podium so that, with a snowman audience, Blanco could practice speaking in the January cold of Washington, D.C. Culminating in details of the inauguration ceremony and the public acclaim that followed, Blanco's memoir is an inspiring celebration of the United States. --Cheryl Krocker McKeon, bookseller, Book Passage, San Francisco