Yahoo News asked a group of poets to write their own inauguration poems, just like President Barack Obama commissioned Richard Blanco to write a poem for the swearing-in ceremony.
The participating writers included Pulitzer Prize-winning poets James Tate and Paul Muldoon, Our Andromeda author Brenda Shaughnessy, The Grey Album: On the Blackness of Blackness author Kevin Young and James Franco.
The video embedded above features readings by Young, Muldoon and Franco. What do you think?
Here’s more from the article: “Surveying the short history of presidential verse, Yahoo News began to wonder what would happen if inaugural poets might be inspired to raise their games. Without exactly staging a poetry slam, we turned to some of our favorite living poets: Would they compose something for Obama this time around?”
As we previously reported, Graywolf Press will be publishing Franco’s debut poetry collection in April 2014.
In the past, the Oscar-nominated actor has written a short story collection entitled Palo Alto. He also has a deal with Amazon Publishing for a novel called Actors Anonymous. (via Vulture.com)