Richard Blanco delivers his inauguration poem "One Day."

By Dan Turner Los Angeles Times

3:43 p.m. CST, January 21, 2013

so my brother and I could have books and shoes."

--"One Today," Richard Blanco 

 

Different, yes: Whitman is the child of Americans singing of his wonder at the nature of creation seemingly from elements as simple as blades of grass and motes of soil, Blanco wondering at his connection to the land and the life it brings his family. But in both poems it is our ground, our American ground without which life would be impossible.They are poems about how nature, America, and our identity touch us all, and the differences between us might not be as great as they're made out to be by our political system.

That's a message all Americans could use right about now.

ALSO:

China's me-first foreign policy

L.A. imagined: The city that isn't

Inauguration 2013: Obama's mission is to help bid up the nation's wounds

Follow Dan Turner on Facebook