The Day I Saw Barack Obama Reading Derek Walcott's Collected Poems (Yusef Komunyakaa)

Wow. Back in '08 when Obama won election is when I'm guessing this poem by Yusef Komunyakaa was written. It was a heady time - a black man, a young, charismatic orator won the presidential election. I wonder if there are other poems/essays about that time. I know there must be, but I think that poetry is particularly suited to the task, and in particular I think that this poem deals with this current event in a way that also touches on and deals with its complicated history.

Obama and Walcott (another talented biracial man from a tropical island). I like the connection made between the two. I like that in this very current poem, you get a great feel for the complexity of race, complexion, history, culture, art and politics.

I love that in a poem about 'real' topics (ones that you could reference in the paper), the focus is on the president's connection with literature and poetry.

Love this poem, love this complexity. Love that poetry can yield stuff this complex because if you wrote it out into prose I bet you'd have at least a 50-page paper.

Favorite line: "Now, he looks as if he wants to eat words, / their sweet, intoxicating flavor."

Now, he looks as if he wants to eat words, their sweet, intoxicating flavor. - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/22551#sthash.EFLoCkWS.dpuf

Facing It (Yusef Komunyakaa)

I first read this poem by Yusef K. before high school and again on either the ACT or SAT. Since it was on a standardized test it must then be considered graspable enough for 17-year-olds.

And it is definitely approachable. It begins almost prose-like. It's clear who is talking (a Vietnam veteran) and where he is (the Vietnam War Memorial) and how he is feeling (lost in a rush of memories and fighting against those feelings).

When I first read this poem I remember thinking that the last line fell flat. And I still think it sticks out. I now also think it's the man's purposeful re-entry into present time. No, not everything is in or about the Vietnam Memorial. Sometimes, it really is just a woman brushing a boy's hair.

I also think that by having that as the last line of the poem it makes the whole poem, full of death and memories of carnage, a hopeful one. It's realistic, but also ends on a hopeful note by having it end in reality. The current reality.

Although, how much has Yusef left his Vietnam past behind if after visiting the Memorial, almost drowning in memories, and managing to pull himself back into the present reality, he spends the hours and days to write this quality poem?

Favorite line: "My black face fades,/hiding inside the black granite./...I'm stone. I'm flesh."