The Man Is A Poet

“This is a poet,” was once said to African-American novelist, Toni Morrison. Listening to him address his fellow citizens with both humanism and sobriety, seeing the crowd cling to his ideals, I seemed to feel the Washington wind blow, making untidy the hair of millions, which is exactly what they expected: a blowing hope.

The man is a poet, yes, but one of these really scarce politician poets, as ideological as they are pragmatical. A man who knows exactly where he comes from and where he’s going. A man who reached the world’s highest position in a town where, as he reminded, “a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant.” In this regard, before he even accomplished anything as president, Obama already incarnates the American Dream. A dream, he promises, that he will give meaning back to.

This is going to be a colossal task. He knows it and he wanted the whole world to know it. Don’t expect a miracle, he seemed to say, giving as an introduction the very dark portrait of the times which led him to power. Times of war and crisis, of storm and winter, he insisted.

But what I remember from this speech is neither the storm nor the winter. What I remember, it’s the raised hand, reaching out to the world. Reaching out to whoever is “willing to unclench [his] fist.” The hand of a man who, we feel, had touched the world’s complexity and its inequalities. The hand of this man, both black and white, carrying Kenyan and Kansas roots, who lived in one of the world’s poorest countries and attended the most prestigious universities, who worked with Chicago’s poorest, then stood by the side of the rich and the powerful. The hand of a both and ordinary and extraordinary man.

Betting on hope rather than on fear, claiming the United States “reject as false the choice between [their] safety and [their] ideals,” Obama announced to the whole world that the Bush years finally had come to an end. A dark page of history had finally been turned. By reminding that the power of the American nation doesn’t authorize him to do as he wants, he abruptly let fall the curtain over the era of arrogance and so, he marked the return of a diplomatic America.

Acclaimed like a king, Obama is neither a messiah nor is he a Superman, whatever one would say. “[…] greatness is never a given. It must be earned,”, he reminded. He was talking about the United States, but we got the impression he was also talking about himself, as a prudent and humble promise to achieve his goals.