Yusef Komunyakaa: American

Paul Corman-Roberts, over at The Rumpus, argues that Yusef Komunyakaa is our most “American” and Whitmanesque poet. He points to Komunyakka’s emphasis on traveling and journey, which resonates with the expanse of American geography and psychology:

Komunyakaa’s profound connection to the Whitman dialectic makes him perhaps the most “American” poet currently writing in the English language. That might sound strange to an unread citizen of the U.S. or even downright treasonous to the jingoistic (“Yusef who?!”) Still, can you name another poet who currently embodies the bold tradition of “tripping” (life on the road) with the poetic capability and cool authority of the sexually charged bohemian from the West?

Corman-Roberts then takes his argument one step further, and implies that the music of Komunyakaa’s lines is evidence of the “journeying” quality of the work:

You can feel the poet getting away from the short, attractive verses and beginning to “jam.” Komunyakaa’s poetic song sets the tempo for these chameleonic mutations, and the echo of these rituals where Komunyakaa sets free the joy of abandoning exterior worlds for interior worlds, allowing the archetypes to become familiar ghosts whose features are forever shifting, waiting to be asked their next turn on the poet’s dance floor.