Goodness

Yusef Komunyakaa, Susie Ibarra and George collaborated on a performance piece and opera called Shangri-la which was performed in New York City during 2005.  Yusef wrote this poem for George when he passed away in 2008 and Roberto Rodriguez (Susie's husband) read the poem at the memorial service.  I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the poem was published in the Fall/Winter 2009-10 literary journal of the Cerise Press and wanted to share it with you all.  Thank you Yusef.  Happy Birthday George.

Goodness
by Yusef Komunyakaa


Sometimes, if we’re halfway lucky
we may stumble & glimpse goodness
in a face, peering around a corner
or sharp turn in the labyrinth.
We arrive, staring over our shoulder
at pawprints the snow leopard left
on a trail circling back to the most fierce
hunter, back to the uncoiled loop’s
double roundel. How many paths
do we dare seek the spun gold knot
beneath the plum tree bent down
with blooms in the middle kingdom?
We brainstormed over bowls of water
spinach, Chinese broccoli, crispy fish,
& Szechuan beef. I can still see
stations of the cross we walked
through the Village, as if taunted
by springtime. Weren’t we in Shangri-la
for happy hour? With so much laughter
in your eyes & mouth, I didn’t know you
could foresee crocuses in the snow
as those perfect nocturnal beings
wrestled day & night to the ground.
George, I’d love to believe nature
is never truly unkind, that she
only wills the tiger bee its stinger
to guard the rally of honeysuckle
climbing the rusty iron-spiked gate
where mercy pulled all the fruit
down to the lowest branches.

Biography

Born in 1947 in Bogalusa, Louisiana, YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA served in the United States Army from 1969 to 1970 as the managing editor of the Southern Cross and as a correspondent during the Vietnam war. He is the author of Warhorses, Poems (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009); Taboo: The Wishbone Trilogy, Part 1 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004); Neon Vernacular: New & Selected Poems 1977-1989 (Wesleyan, 1993), which received the Pulitzer Prize and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award; and Dien Cai Dau (Wesleyan, 1988), among other collections, including the book of prose, Blues Notes: Essays, Interviews & Commentaries (University of Michigan Press, 2000). Elected a Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets in 1999, Komunyakaa is currently Distinguished Senior Poet in New York University’s graduate creative writing program.

Reprinted from the Ceres Press:  
http://www.cerisepress.com/01/02/goodness