Richard Blanco on creating a mental space through poetry

(CBS News) A great deal of prose was spoken at January's Presidential Inauguration, broken up by a moment of pure poetry, recited by a man who traveled a very long road to get there. Seth Doane has his story:

From "One Today":

"One sun rose on us today, kindled over our shores,
peeking over the Smokies, greeting the faces of the Great Lakes,
spreading a simple truth across the Great Plains,
then charging across the Rockies.
One light, waking up rooftops, under each one, a story
told by our silent gestures moving behind windows."

For a poet - it's the most prominent platform imaginable. But before he performed at President Obama's Second Inauguration, Richard Blanco practiced on the balcony of his home in Bethel, Maine.

He recited his poem "One Today" to a snowman his nephews had built in his backyard.

"It helped me a lot in the sense of, when I was up there, I did think about the snowman," Blanco laughed.

"One Today": Text of Richard Blanco's Inaugural poem

He still doesn't know why the White House picked him to be the Inaugural poet.

"In some ways, I want to know; in some ways I want it to remain a mystery," Blanco said. "I don't want to be disillusioned. I have these romantic visions of, you know, President Obama and Michelle sitting around before bedtime and, one of them saying, 'We should get this guy up here for the Inaugural!'"

On Inauguration Day, Blanco said, it was exhilarating . . . and terrifying.

"There's a moment when the tension gets too thick, you just want to get it over with," Blanco said.

When was that moment? "Right when the announced Kelly Clarkson -- I was like, 'C'mon, girl!'" Blanco said. [Clarkson sang just before Blanco took the stage.]

"When I got to the podium, both the President and the Vice President stood up and very graciously shook my hand. That really also gave me a boost of confidence with the sense that they were almost ushering me, presenting me to America in a very sort of beautiful way."

He was the fifth poet ever to read at a president's Inauguration, and he followed legends like Maya Angelou at President Clinton's inauguration . . . and Robert Frost at JFK's 1961 swearing-in.

Blanco was the youngest, the first Latino, and the first openly-gay Inaugural poet. "I feel like I'm a reflection of the very contemporary America that we're living in," he said.

He had just six weeks to come up with something. His once-serene existence in Maine became anything but, as he worked day and night to craft the perfect poem.

"At first you're like, This is really nice; then the next morning you're like, I hate that poem," he said.

His partner of 12 years, Mark Neveu, did what he could. "I mean, it was such an intense creative time that even just the little noise, you know, could set him off," Neveu said. So he was temporarily exiled from their home in Bethel. They'd moved there four years ago so that Neveu, a molecular biologist, could take a job.

Richard wrote, worked on the planning board, and felt welcome in the tiny town.

Doane asked, "People didn't know you were a poet?"

"Well, you know, it's an odd thing to say to people. You say 'poet,' they're like, 'Oh, my grandfather's a poet,'" Blanco said. "And you have to explain, 'No, I'm really a poet, I've got books!'"

His Cuban roots are a regular theme in his poems, as is his longing to find home.

From "Looking for the Gulf Motel":

"My brother and I should still be playing Parcheesi,
my father should still be alive, slow dancing
with my mother on the sliding-glass balcony
of The Gulf Motel. No music, only the waves
keeping time, a song only their minds hear
ten-thousand nights back to their life in Cuba.
My mother's face should still be resting against
his bare chest like the moon resting on the sea,
the stars should still be turning around them."

Excerpts from "Looking for the Gulf Motel" by Richard Blanco (pdf)

Blanco grew up in Miami, the son of Cuban exiles. It was a modest upbringing. "I remember having, like, lawn furniture for living room furniture," he chuckled.

Doane met Blanco's family at Sergio's Cuban Diner in Miami: Richard's brother, Carlos, and his mother, Geysa, who got a coveted seat on that inaugural stage.

She mainly speaks Spanish, and all this attention has made her something of a celebrity at the local bank where she works. (Blanco said he's sure she signs autographs.)

"For me, the proudest thing of him being up there was that all the hard work paid off in a totally unexpected way," said Carlos.

Unexpected, because Blanco's first career was civil engineering. Doane visited one of his projects in Dade County, where Blanco discussed the laying out of the road, the curbing, the concrete, where everything was going to go.

Blanco saw similarities between his civic design and his poems: "What I do in poetry is sort of create a space for people to walk into mentally."

He's relishing his moment in the spotlight -- and poetry's, too.

"I love it because of the attention it brings to poetry in America in general," he said. "And so I'm embracing it in the sense, I mean, when else is poetry spoken about at this scale in our country? It's rare."

Rare . . . and for Richard Blanco, wonderful.

For more info:

• richard-blanco.com
• "Looking For the Gulf Motel" by Richard Blanco (University of Pittsburgh Press) | eBook (Amazon)
• "One Today" by Richard Blanco (Norton)
• Our thanks to: Sergio's Restaurant in Miami, for the generosity and good food; and to Pok Sun Lane, for taking good care of us during our visit to Bethel
• Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts
• Gould Academy, Bethel, Maine