A year in review from poet J. Ivy

WATCH POET J. IVY RECAP 2009

2009 will be a year remembered for many things--from the historic inauguration of President Barack Obama in January to the outbreak of the H1N1 virus around the world in early June.

The death of musical legend Michael Jackson later that same month also shook the nation. Tragedy struck Fort Hood, Texas in November but was avoided on Christmas Day when crew members aboard a Northwest Airlines flight subdued a suspected bomber.

Hear about it all in a special year-in-review poem from Chicago native J. Ivy:

Lasting Impressions

Y2K came and went,

10 years later we're looking back at how the last impressions were spent,

The year was kicked off by America inaugurating its 1st Black President,

A year where dollars didn't make sense,

Banks going bankrupt, pockets full of lint,

So the government opened up the mint,

Bailouts were lent,

But during foreclosures and bailouts,

More troops sailed out,

Terrorist strapping bombs to baby strollers, so lost souls yelled out,

Somebody let hell out,

Anthrax was mailed out...special delivery,

A woman had eight babies in one delivery,

Chivalry ain't dead, they giving out sweetheart deals on Capitol Hill,

How does it feel?

When Wall Street crumbles on Main Street,

Folks losing jobs by the thousands so they can't stay on their feet,

Can't hardly eat,

They say there's arsenic in the water, so we can hardly drink,

Meanwhile the war is costing us trillions,

Madoff made off with billions,

We're so far in debt they're taxing our unborn children,

But I guess we all have to pay tolls,

We can't ever give up, asks Susan Boyle,

They say go green so the earth won't boil,

From the Gaza strip to protests in Iran,

To the Taliban in Afghanistan there's a lot going on on foreign soil,

Foreign seas,

Like a scene in Pirates of the Caribbean,

Off the coast of Somalia cruise liners were seized.

There's a new disease, Wash your hands, cover your sneeze,

There might not be any pork on your fork.

But you might have swine flu on your spoon,

Look, it's a bird, it's a plane,

No it's a boy in a balloon.

Well, there was no boy but they did shoot rockets at the moon,

The media shot down stars,

Tiger rendezvoused in the rendezvous then crashed the car,

In the Hudson, a plane didn't crash, but made a splash landing,

It's hard to have hope when they attack the Pope,

But yes, were still standing,

With ideas of flying cars,

The auto industry may have crashed but we've come so far,

We have so far to go,

They beat young Derrion to death here in Chicago,

They moving Guantanamo,

We've seen votes on health care,

Folks suffering from the wealthy to those on welfare,

Life ain't fair...it can be so foul,

How do you break up to make up when you're Chris Brown and Rihanna,

We saw the Nobel Peace Prize go to Obama,

We've seen killings cause families to wither,

We saw the World get even smaller on Twitter,

To the World's dis-satisfaction,

We unwillingly said good-bye to the greatest entertainer ever...

Michael Jackson,

We saw so many stories jump into action,

So read all about it,

There's truth between the lines,

It's the close of a decade, 2009,

But as we turn the page, what next will we find?