I am struggling with a complicated mix of emotions as I watch the Virginia Tech convocation, which is being covered on just about every TV station I get. It seems strange to live blog something like this, but here I go.

At the end of the convocation, Poet Nikki Giovanni got up and spoke. “We are Virginia Tech”, she repeated through her talk. For those who don’t know Nikki Giovanni, she is an incredible poet and Virginia Tech is particularly blessed to have her there as a professor, poet and speaker, especially at a time like this.

One of my favorite poems of hers is Ego Tripping.

I am so perfect so divine so ethereal so surreal
I cannot be comprehended except by my permission

As she ends, the crowd starts chanting, “Let’s go Hokies, Let’s go Hokies”

The convocation ends with a speaker saying, “Boy, we needed that.”

Update:
OldenGoldenDecoy has the text of Nikki Giovanni's words over at
TPMCafe

“We are Virginia Tech.

We are sad today and we will be sad for quite awhile. WE are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning.

We are Virginia Tech.

We are strong enough to know when to cry and sad enough to know we must laugh again.

We are Virginia Tech.

We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did not deserve it but neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS, but neither do the invisible children walking the night to avoid being captured by a rogue army. Neither does the baby elephant watching his community be devastated for ivory; neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy.

We are Virginia Tech.

The Hokier Nation embraces our own with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong and brave and innocent and unafraid. We are better than we think, not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imagination and the possibility we will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears, through all this sadness.

We are the Hokies.

We will prevail, we will prevail.

We are Virginia Tech. "

I hope someone puts it up on YouTube.