*Poet Sarah Blake chose to write about one of the world’s biggest MCs, Kanye West and one of the most controversial as well. “Mr. West” is the name of her book of poetry about the rapper.
“Kanye’s mother, Donda West, died when my grandfather was dying of cancer (and he died a few months later),” she said. “When Kanye’s fourth album, ‘808s & Heartbreak,’ came out, I had a small collection of poems about loss.”
“Seeing how grief could be experienced publicly and privately in America struck me,” she added. “When I wanted to write new poems — poems that took me away from what I had been writing — I wrote about Kanye.”
“The first poem I wrote, ‘Kanye’s Circulatory System,’ was actually still about my grandfather. The poem ends, ‘You miss her and I miss him but // surely I cannot say if, when you think of death, you, Kanye, think of the heart.’ From there the poems about Kanye kept coming and the book took me through relationships and events, albums and music videos,” she told Page Six.
While the author added she “reached out to many people,” including Kanye’s copyright lawyer, West does “not authorize” her work about him. What she really wants to do is gift West a poem.
“At the end of my poem about ‘Jesus Walks,’ I write, ‘Kanye, if only I could write a poem for you and not about you.” That’s how I still feel. It was a pleasure to write a book about Kanye West. Difficult and heartbreaking, but also a pleasure. I’m so grateful that he is in this world and creating. But what I’d love to do is write a poem that was actually for him, a gift of a poem.”
Read more at Page Six.
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