PORTLAND, Maine — Having written and read the inaugural poem when Barack Obama was sworn in for a second term in 2013, Richard Blanco has seen from a unique perch the pomp and ceremony that make presidential events special. Even so, he wasn’t quite prepared for the emotions that bubbled up when he arrived at the White House earlier this year to receive a National Humanities Medal from President Biden.
“They have, like, a thirty-piece band from the Navy or Army, I’m not sure, and there’s all this hoopla,” he recalls with a smile. “We file in, and the band is playing, and I start crying. I mean, not sobbing. But I get teary-eyed.”
The company alone blew Blanco away. Vera Wang, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Mindy Kaling and Gladys Knight were among those being honored with either a National Humanities Medal or a National Medal for the Arts. Heady stuff for a guy who grew up in Miami, the son of Cuban immigrants, and has lived quietly for many years in Bethel.
At this point in the White House ceremony, his eyes filled with tears, Blanco found comfort from an unexpected source.
“Lo and behold, I’m sitting next to Kamala Harris,” he says. “And she reaches out to me and says, ‘Honey, just take it all in.’ It was like, OK, now I’m really going to cry.”
Blanco has a new book out, a collection of poems called “Homeland of My Body.” It provides a broad look at his work spanning a quarter-century.
If you’d like to hear Blanco talk about poetry, writing, Maine, Miami, America and more, he’s appearing at an event in Portland on October 27 with Governor Janet Mills, who also enjoys writing poems. He’ll sign books, and she’ll sign a poem of her own.