Yusef Komunyakaa – Michigan Quarterly Review

Yusef Komunyakaa

Yusef Komunyakaa is the recipient of the 2011 Wallace Stevens Award. His other honors include the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the William Faulkner Prize from the Université de Rennes, the Thomas Forcade Award, the Hanes Poetry Prize, fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the Louisiana Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 1999. He has taught at University of New Orleans, Indiana University, as a professor in the Council of Humanities and Creative Writing Program at Princeton University. He lives in New York City where he is currently Distinguished Senior Poet in New York University’s graduate creative writing program.

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Yes, It Could Be Worse

Hit play below to hear Yusef Komunyakaa read his poem “Yes, It Could Be Worse” and scroll down for the full text. The poem is featured in MQR’s Summer 2020 issue. MQR · Yusef Komunyakaa – It Could Be Worse I was not strong as Jean Valjean though my muscles knew weight & scent of pine from […]

Yes, It Could Be Worse Read More »

Hit play below to hear Yusef Komunyakaa read his poem “Yes, It Could Be Worse” and scroll down for the full text. The poem is featured in MQR’s Summer 2020 issue. MQR · Yusef Komunyakaa – It Could Be Worse I was not strong as Jean Valjean though my muscles knew weight & scent of pine from

Negative Capability

“Negative Capability,” by Yusef Komunyakaa,  appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review’s Summer 1999 issue. We bring you this poem from The MQR Archives. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ The honeysuckle vines are certain They’ll be here tomorrow morning, Unhushed scent reaching into next month, As I rest the scythe against a stump To sharpen the curved blade. Their green surety. My

Negative Capability Read More »

“Negative Capability,” by Yusef Komunyakaa,  appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review’s Summer 1999 issue. We bring you this poem from The MQR Archives. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ The honeysuckle vines are certain They’ll be here tomorrow morning, Unhushed scent reaching into next month, As I rest the scythe against a stump To sharpen the curved blade. Their green surety. My

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