Write Right

The Writing Life

Poetry

Reflecting on Yusef Komunyakaa’s “Kindness”

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Yusef Komunyakaa’s poem “Kindness” opens with the following lines:

…..When deeds splay before us
precious as gold & unused chances
stripped from the whine bone,
we know the moment kindheartedness
walks in.

The five lines evoke a world, one in which there is an “us,” a “we.” This we—perhaps two people, perhaps a large number of people—examines deeds and unused chances, almost appearing as riches displayed on velvet cloth or constellations on a clear, blue-black night. In this examination, something reveals itself: “the moment kindheartedness / walks in.”

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Reflecting on Anne Sexton’s “Letter Written on a Ferry”

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Anne Sexton’s poem “Letter Written on a Ferry While Crossing Long Island Sound”—which is far too long to include with this brief reflection—begins in the middle of things. The speaker says, “I am surprised to see / that the ocean is still going on.” With that single sentence the speaker alludes to a history not ever fully disclosed to the reader. Hints exist, though, such as the “dearest” to whom the speaker directs her thoughts. Other words suggest a fraught relationship, words like “ripped” in the first stanza and “although everything has happened / nothing has happened” in the second.

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Reflecting on Claude McKay’s “Subway Wind”

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Subway Wind

Far down, down through the city’s great gaunt gut
The gray train rushing bears the weary wind;
In the packed cars the fans the crowd’s breath cut,
Leaving the sick and heavy air behind.
And pale-cheeked children seek the upper door
To give their summer jackets to the breeze;
Their laugh is swallowed in the deafening roar
Of captive wind that moans for fields and seas;
Seas cooling warm where native schooners drift
Through sleepy waters, while gulls wheel and sweep,
Waiting for windy waves the keels to lift
Lightly among the islands of the deep;
Islands of lofty palm trees blooming white
That led their perfume to the tropic sea,
Where fields lie idle in the dew-drenched night,
And the Trades float above them fresh and free.

Source: Claude McKay: Complete Poems (University of Illinois Press, 2004)

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