Prayer for Our Country [upon the Inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama], by Ilana Joy Streit (2009)

Contributor(s):

Kohenet Ilana Joy Streit

Shared on:

10 February 2020 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

Categories:

Inauguration Day (January 20th), Coronations & Inaugurations, United States of America

Tags:

Barack Hussein Obama, United States, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Prayers as poems, English vernacular prayer, American Jewry of the United States, Prayers for leaders

Prayer for Our Country

1. I just want to keep looking
       at the photo of you
       on the front page of the newspaper
       sitting there at your desk in the Oval Office
       on the telephone

2. May all my cells
take in this hope

3. May all parents of newborns
get an extra hour of sleep
every night

4. May Barack Hussein Obama
live to 120

5. May hope, now that we’ve
       allowed it into us,
       may it now be free
       to roam around
       on city streets in the middle
       of the night
       when so many of us are asleep

6. May hope, now that we’ve
       seen it on each other’s faces
       and tasted it in our tears –
       may it have little parades
       all the time
       along with each day’s rush hour traffic

7. May hope, now that we keep naming it,
       remain.
       May we perhaps forget
       why we refound it,
       who helped us find it

8. May there be
       in my lifetime
       a female president
       of the United States

May she live to 120

9. May none of us pray to President Obama
May all of us pray for him
May no one prey upon him

10. May we continue to merit
       leaders
       the sight of whom
       makes me start to cry
       with relief

11. I just so love the photo
       on the front page of the newspaper
       of you sitting there in the Oval Office
       on the telephone to God

“Prayer for Our Country” was composed by Ilana Streit in January 2009 in honor of Barack Hussein Obama completing his first full day in the office of President.

I am a USer who is politically liberal/ radical/ progressive.

For a number of years before writing this poem, I had been in Shabbat services where we read Prayer for our Country aloud out of the siddur, longingly wishing that we had elected leaders and officials that we could trust and respect.

Then Barack Obama was elected and inaugurated as President. A few days after he was inaugurated, I saw a photo of him on the front page of a local newspaper. I felt something viscerally in that moment — that moment of promise — and this poem came as a result.

[Financial contributions are most welcome, and support further creation and sharing of Ilana’s creative work. You can see and hear more of Ilana’s creative work on her Patreon page. Or to make a one-time contribution, Venmo (@Ilana-Streit).]

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“Prayer for Our Country [upon the Inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama], by Ilana Joy Streit (2009)” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Kohenet Ilana Joy Streit

Based in mid-Hudson Valley, New York, Kohenet Ilana Joy Streit is a working artist, peacemaker, and a weaver of blessings (through poem, prayer, and song).

Thank you for honoring and contributing to her work in any or all of the following ways:

Share her work (with attribution of course) to expand its reach
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US President Barack Obama taking his Oath of Office (credit: Master Sgt. Cecilio Ricardo, U.S. Air Force, license: PD)

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." –Psalms 90:17