Oddly, as a speculative literature writer, I'm a little leery of peering into the future when it comes to whose writing will survive for tomorrow's generations. Given the track record of most critics, I suspect I'd be better off drilling three holes into my crystal ball and heading down to the local bowling alley instead.
With the democratization of modern writing, everyone thinks they're an undiscovered Bard with the inkjet printer to prove it. We'll likely be wading in an ocean of the unread a century from now, hard pressed to keep from hitting the "grind" and "shred" buttons.
Nobel Prize winners and Oprah Book Club selections aside, I'm going to put my chips on the poet Yusef Komunyakaa, from Bogalusa, Lousiana. While we have a bajillion half-baked poetasters running around churning out tired soup can labels posing as verse for the unwitting, Komunyakaa is creating poetry we can sink our teeth into.
With books like Dien Cai Dau, and poems like "Facing It" and "You and I Are Disappearing", we are left with a first-hand account of the Vietnam War that's beautifully executed and insightful. That he was a journalist of color in the United States Army during this time makes him stand out as a unique perspective that will be sought out by tomorrow's readers, and it will remain relevant.
He's further cementing his place in the future with books like Talking Dirty To The Gods, an encyclopoetic homage to the inner and outer world using four by four by four syncopated quatrains. Whether he's talking about Godzilla, an ode to the maggot, Harry Crosby, the Mayan Lady Xoc, a pantheon of Greek gods or Darwin's finches, nothing seems to escape his unflinching eye. This is a man fully in history.
With its layers upon layers, Talking Dirty To The Gods is a significant gauntlet that's been thrown down for the future, challenging what we can do with formal poetic forms.
Komunyakaa's not typically a formalist, and assuming jazz is still around in the future, people will also be looking at his "jazz poetry", which he used to explore the connection between racism, music and community.
Yes, Yusef's received a lot of awards for his book Neon Vernacular, including a Pulitzer, but it's what he's doing in his other books that I think will really fix him into the consciousness of tomorrow, hearing a voice as applicable to their lives as to ours.
A lot can happen in a hundred years, but we'd be a sorer place without his work there at the end. You can check out more of Yusef for free (and free is always good) at www.ibiblio.org/ipa
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