Obamas Lyrik (und mehr zu seiner Prosa)

POP
Sitting in his seat, a seat broad and broken

In, sprinkled with ashes

Pop switches channels, takes another

Shot of Seagrams, neat, and asks

What to do with me, a green young man

Who fails to consider the

Flim and flam of the world, since

Things have been easy for me;

I stare hard at his face, a stare

That deflects off his brow;

I’m sure he’s unaware of his

Dark, watery eyes, that

Glance in different directions,

And his slow, unwelcome twitches,

Fail to pass.

I listen, nod,

Listen, open, till I cling to his pale,

Beige T-shirt, yelling,

Yelling in his ears, that hang

With heavy lobes, but he’s still telling

His joke, so I ask why

He’s so unhappy, to which he replies...

But I don’t care anymore, cause

He took too damn long, and from

Under my seat, I pull out the

Mirror I’ve been saving; I’m laughing,

Laughing loud, the blood rushing from his face

To mine, as he grows small,

A spot in my brain, something

That may be squeezed out, like a

Watermelon seed between

Two fingers.

Pop takes another shot, neat,

Points out the same amber

Stain on his shorts that I’ve got on mine, and

Makes me smell his smell, coming

From me; he switches channels, recites an old poem

He wrote before his mother died,

Stands, shouts, and asks

For a hug, as I shrink, my

Arms barely reaching around

His thick, oily neck, and his broad back; ’cause

I see my face, framed within

Pop’s black-framed glasses

And know he’s laughing too.

UNDERGROUND
Under water grottos, caverns

Filled with apes

That eat figs.

Stepping on the figs

That the apes

Eat, they crunch.

The apes howl, bare

Their fangs, dance,

Tumble in the

Rushing water,

Musty, wet pelts

Glistening in the blue.

Für Interpretationen wäre ich dankbar - ist das nun gute, schlechte oder ganz einfach mittelmäßige Prosa? Ich kann nur etwas zum Hintergrund beitragen: Obama schrieb diese Gedichte während seiner College-Zeit in Los Angeles, wohin er nach dem Abschluss seiner Schulausbildung auf Hawaii gekommen war. Dort kämpfte er gegen die Apartheit, hörte Led Zeppling und die Stones und sammelte seine Erfahrungen mit Drogen. Mehr dazu in Obamas Lebenslauf.

Kein Zweifel besteht dagegen an der Qualität von Obamas Prosa. Seine frühe Autobiographie "Dreams of My Father" und sein politsches Programm "The Audacity of Hope" haben sich nicht nur millionenfach verkauft, sie werden auch von Literaturexperten hoch gelobt: Die NYT zitiert Arnold Rampersad, Englisch-Professor an der Stanford University mit Bezug auf die Biographie: "The book is so literary. It is so full of clever tricks — inventions for literary effect — that I was taken aback, even astonished. But make no mistake, these are simply the tricks that art trades in, and out of these tricks is supposed to come our realization of truth.”

Die NYT schildert detailliert, wie diese Bücher entstanden sind. Außerdem verrät sie, dass Obama mit seinem Verlag einen Vertrag über drei Bücher abgeschlossen hat, wovon "The Audacity of Hope" das erste war. Als nächstes soll eine Biographie speziell für Kinder erscheinen, das Thema für das dritte steht noch nicht fest.

dsf