For The Mayor’s State of the City Luncheon, February 12, 2013
When Richard Blanco was named as the 2013 inaugural poet, the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Tracy K. Smith said that the White House had made an ideal choice, citing the scope of his poems and “their beautiful fidelity to private experience, to place, to community and to a complex sense of self.” Here’s my favorite section of the poem, the powerful last lines that Blanco delivered on that biting cold day in Washington last month.
And always one moon
like a silent drum tapping on every rooftop
and every window, of one country—all of us—
facing the stars
hope—a new constellation
waiting for us to map it,
waiting for us to name it—together.
Those words have been swirling in my head for weeks, and inspired this poem:
One San Ramon, Our San Ramon
by Kathy Moore, San Ramon’s Poet Laureate

Every day, I step outside under the blue-black sky of early morning
Bare feet, cold concrete
The local paper waiting silently
Flung there by some mysterious unseen hand
I pause to look above,
Count the stars, name the ones I know,
Polaris, Ursa, Orion
And whisper a grateful thanks to the ever-present moon
Changing shape each night as it dances across this winter sky

How lucky we are to live in this valley
In the shadow of Mount Diablo
Where pioneers and farmers and family men
Stopped to plant and build and grow
Laying the foundation for this time and this place we love
This place we know as home

Home to tenth-generation Californians, and next generation citizens
All united in our love of this place,
Quality schools, welcoming churches and a cathedral of fresh air
Here we give thanks for plentiful parks and fields and miles of trails,
Rushing streams that appear after big rains,
And hillsides flecked with wildflowers and families
We worship light poles dotted with sentry-like hawks
Shady-treed medians and wide-open spaces
festivals and fireworks and farmer’s markets
places to greet and gather and return to often
reminding us all of our shared sense of pride
Our community and commitment
Our San Ramon, One San Ramon
Home