On this day in 1961 the inauguration of President John F Kennedy took place in Washington DC. The 86 year old poet Robert Frost recited some of his poetry from memory (the sun was in his eyes so he could not read it). The inauguration finished and Kennedy’s thousand days in office began. The whole country eagerly looked forward to a new era, not knowing what lay ahead.

One of Kennedy’s favourite poems was this one by Alan Seeger, which has a grim prophetic ring to it: I have a rendezvous with Death

At some disputed barricade,
When Spring comes back with rustling shade
And apple-blossoms fill the air –
I have a rendezvous with Death
When Spring brings back blue days and fair.
It may be he shall take my hand
And lead me into his dark land
And close my eyes and quench my breath –
It may be I shall pass him still.
I have a rendezvous with Death
On some scarred slope of battered hill,
When Spring comes round again this year
And the first meadow-flowers appear.
God knows ’twere better to be deep
Pillowed in silk and scented down,
Where hushed awakenings are dear
But I’ve a rendezvous with Death
At midnight in some flaming town,
When Spring trips north again this year,
And I to my pledged word am true,
I shall not fail that rendezvous.

Today I reflect on the future with faith in the inherent goodness of mankind.