It also occurred to me that my fellow poets might have opinions worth sharing and, by the miracle of e-mail, I got in touch with some estimable pals. I can say unequivocally that everyone seems to be operating on the assumption that the Bush administration is either hostile to poetry or simply clueless about it. I imagine he and most of his Cabinet have only the vaguest idea that there's such a thing as American poetry, and it has no interest for them. That says something fairly distinct about American culture. Everybody understands that language is used in particular ways in partisan politics, and doesn't necessarily hold politicians responsible for it.
Judicial language is another matter.
The polis rests on it, which is why Dante, for example, put abusers of public language in the coldest pit of hell. The inclusion of a poet in this country's inaugural ceremony is relatively recent. Kennedy invited Frost, then 30-plus years passed before Clinton had Maya Angelou at his first and Miller Williams at his second. In America, two in a row qualifies as a tradition, so it is a shame to see it broken with George W. Bush. I mean, it's not like they're going to get it.