“Guernica” by Yusef Komunyakaa is today’s featured poem on Poetry Daily. The poem moves historically: from one past moment of war, through Picasso’s later moments of creation, then to the ongoing present of war, as depicted by the images still immediately available to us in the painting. The poem’s passage of historical time hinges on a phrase which Mr. Komunyakaa places in the middle of his poem: “& then time’s ashes / drew past & present future perfect together…”
OTHER POEMS ABOUT PICASSO
Gloria Vando. “Guernica” (Cortland Review, Spring 2008)
Robert Parham. “Of The Old Guitarist” (Ekphrasis, Fall/Winter 2007)
Gwendolyn Brooks. “Two Dedications: The Chicago Picasso” (The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks, edited by Elizabeth Alexander)
Wallace Stevens. “The Man With the Blue Guitar” (Transforming Vision, edited by Edward Hirsch)
Basil King. “Pablo Picasso: Portrait of D.M.” (77 Beasts, by Basil King)
