The public eye on a private poet

Write Obama's inaugural poem? No pressure...really.  When poet Elizabeth Alexander was tapped for the task, she asked herself a simple question before entering action mode:

How can a poet, someone who makes a career of talking to herself, write one of the most public poems in history?

In a profile in Publishers Weekly, Alexander describes her stay-calm strategy for coming up with the inaugural poem, "Praise Song for the Day." The process of writing for the public, she explains, demanded an inside-the-oval frame of mind:

"I had to think about ‘accessibility' and poetic integrity at the same time—there were certain kinds of poems that would not have been appropriate—but not second-guess so much."

But for Alexander, the rise to poetic prominence is about more than one poem:

"I really wanted to use all the opportunities to stump and proselytize on behalf of the dear, neglected art [of poetry], but also on behalf of the other part of my work, which is African-American studies," she says. "I wanted to talk about the ways that culture is actually at the center of American culture."