Richard Blanco was selected by President Obama as the nation’s fifth inaugural poet, joining the ranks of such luminary poets as Robert Frost, Maya Angelou, Miller Williams, and Elizabeth Alexander . The theme of the 2013 presidential inauguration, “Faith in America’s Future,” was reflected in “One Today,” the poem Blanco composed and read for the occasion . His latest poem, “Genius of Stars and Love,” was written for The Tech Awards 2013.
A builder of cities as well as poems, Blanco holds a B.S. in civil engineering and an M.F.A. in creative writing . His poems have appeared in leading literary journals and he is the author of several award-winning books. About his most recent book, For All of Us, One Today (Beacon Press), The Tech’s president Tim Ritchie wrote, “By all means, join Blanco on his journey from a sentimental view of America to one of clear-eyed, reality-tested hope. Learn from his insight about what knits us together as Americans and as humans. Who better than a civil engineer and a poet to envision the foundation for a community characterized by dignity, beauty, and opportunity?”
About The Tech Museum of Innovation
The Tech Museum of Innovation is a hands-on technology and science museum for people of all ages and backgrounds. The Tech—located in the Capital of Silicon Valley —is a non-profit, experiential learning resource established to engage people in exploring and experiencing applied technologies affecting their lives. Through programs such as The Tech Challenge presented by Cisco, our annual team-design competition for youth, and internationally renowned programs such as The Tech Awards presented by Applied Materials, The Tech endeavors to inspire the innovator in everyone.
Genius of Stars and Love
on the occasion of The Tech Awards 2013
The tiny billion eyes of the stars have seen it all.
They’ve watched us as long as we’ve stared up
at them, their twinkle whispering in our eyes, eons
before our tongues tamed breaths into words
that could name them, chart and connect them
in the likeness of our heroes, gods, and beasts.
They knew our minds would dare kindle fire: fire
to cook, to draw and write with soot, fire to reach
the moon someday, then aim toward their sparkle.
They knew once they heard the first tree we felled
and hollowed into a hull, cutting across the mirror
of a lake to a far shore—simply because there was
a farther shore. They held our hands stitching sails
to cup wind across seas, glide over the flat earth
before it was round to us. They knew, following us
as we followed them for centuries to map our world
in pastel colors, then stitch continents with tracks,
roads veining over the land. They knew we’d solve
the mystery of bones and feathers to forge steel
into wings for ourselves, kiln sand into glass to peer
at our cells dividing, atoms spinning, and the heart
of their starriness breathing like our own bodies.
They saw us speak with smoke, then dots-dashes—
now they eavesdrop on our voices, pixels made air
traveling at the speed of light through our satellites
like fireflies flashing beside them in the nightsky. Sky
from which they’ve also mourned our wars, pitied
our crisp air turned heavy and dark, our reflections
drowned in rivers and lakes spoiled by our spoils,
our land stripped barren by drought and flood.
They knew. But they waited, hoping someday
we’d understand what we’re understanding now:
it takes the soul’s mind as much as the gears
of love if we are to survive ourselves and reach
their starlight someday. Love to graph the arc
of a child’s smile tasting fresh water, tasting
a fresh tomorrow. Love to design an arm of steel
for an armless man, measure the joy in his eyes
able to touch his wife’s face. Love to calculate
what we took, must return to the earth to sow
the seeds of a farmer’s trust. Love to integrate
all the voices of the voiceless into the gigabytes
of words claiming the world. Love to harness
light to give life and save lives, the same light
from the stars that have always known: love
is our wisest formula, most elegant calculation,
our most noble science, most brilliant invention.
Love, our greatest genius, as genius as the fire
in the still eyes of the stars, still watching us.