Barack Obama, the Poet

[poetinahat]

A couple of his poems from 1981.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/us/politics/18poems.html?ref=politics

[Shweta]

Interesting.
I'm not really sure what to make of them, specially since they're so old. Wonder if he's still writing poetry? (I know, he's busy, but if poems happen they happen sometimes, right?)

[Perks]

Can't say I care for those. For me, it was one of those constant struggles to find anything close to an internal rhythm.

Plus, I have no idea what he's talking about.

Those two typify why the poems I love are worth their wordcount in gold ducats.

[Shweta]

I found both unsettling and couldn't quite say why, since I didn't get them. But what you said about the rhythm might well have been a part of it.
But both seemed to me to be exploring uncomfortable interactions, too.

[Perks]

But both seemed to me to be exploring uncomfortable interactions, too.I'm quite often a fan of uncomfortable situations. Especially if other people are having them. But I really didn't get any message from either of these. Which happens with me and poetry unfortunately often. But when it works, it's bliss.

[poetinahat]

To me, they both read as though the poet was trying very hard to write poetry.

It can be very hard work to produce good poems, but the welds shouldn't show.

[Pat~]

The first one made me a bit uncomfortable, but it was more the mechanics, I think, than the message (which I'm still trying to figure out). It was a bit like being stuck on the phone with someone who never puts a period at the end of their sentence. I liked the second one better for its brevity.

[Shweta]

To me, they both read as though the poet was trying very hard to write poetry.
That may be part of what's unnerving about them to me. They read as something which, if I don't get, it's because I'm too much of a genre airhead to understand Literary Stuff.

[Dichroic]

I agree, he's trying to be profound. And gritty. And trying far too hard.

But I think it's a bit cruel to drag out the juvenilia of someone who's not even claiming to be a poet and make the claim that it tells us much about him.

[poetinahat]

If, indeed, that's why the Times published them. There's no comment on them. (I just think that, right now, Obamiana is of general interest. Better a couple of old poems than, say, photos from his garbage can.)

It does show that he has/had interests outside politics. Which is, I think, a comforting thought in itself. Kind of like, say, who was that Republican fellow a few years back who sang the song about the mighty soaring eagle? Ashcroft?

I don't think they're write-offs by any means. And they were published (twice now, at least). I just got an impression that they are, er, poetical.

[johnnysannie]

Gee, what's next? Obama's crayon drawings from kindergarten? His high school history report?

IMHO many journalists today hit new lows in dredging up stuff from the past on high profile figures.

Obama and I are the same age, within two months. I'd hate to have someone dredge up the poems I was writing for the college lit mag at the time and publish them for the world to see.

[TerzaRima]

You know, they're not good poems but for college literary magazine stuff they hold up pretty well--much better than the protogoth sensitive soul manifestoes my friends and I produced back in the day, for sure. I would cringe if anyone read mine, which is why they live in the basement in a shoebox.

[johnnysannie]

Become a public figure and that's exactly what will happen. It's to be expected. Maybe Obama wouldn't feel all that bad that these have been 'dredged' up. It certainly gives him a human side. Before I read the poems I thought he was just a guy who was in bed with a monster.

Actually where I live, I am a public figure.