Earlier this month, President Obama chose the nation's fifth inaugural poet, Richard Blanco, to recite an original poem at Monday's inauguration ceremony. Yahoo News, however, commissioned its own inaugural poems from five different writers, aiming to highlight the various ways one can write about the occasion.
James Franco was among the five writers commissioned, and his poem is picking up a lot of steam on the web. Maybe it's because he rambles on and on about not knowing how to write about Obama. Maybe it's because he reveals that Obama knew him from Spider-Man. Or, most likely, because he appears to recite his poem in front of a webcam while lying in bed.
Yahoo said it included Franco "for good measure -- and yes for a little glamour."
In addition to the line, ""All that stuff on CNN and [T]he Huffington Post," here's one of our favorite excerpts:
I’m not up there, but Obama is. I was asked to write something
For the inauguration of his second term, but what could I write?
I was in Asheville, studying writing, but not the political sort;
I write confessions and characters, and that sort of thing.
I wrote my friend Frank about what I could do, but he was unresponsive.
I went to class and then the little burrito place where they know me,
And finally at night I got Frank’s email on my phone and pulled over
On the side of Warren Wilson Road, past the school barn with the WWC...
The general consensus on Twitter is that the poem is pretty terrible:
I've tried to avoid piling on James Franco in hopes of him making me rich somehow. But this is awful. news.yahoo.com/president-obam…— Amorak Huey (@amorak) January 21, 2013
Dear god, this poem is the worst. news.yahoo.com/president-obam…— Sarah Weinman (@sarahw) January 21, 2013
James Franco gets asked to write a poem for the inauguration and he just lists all the famous people he knows— Kevin Lincoln (@KTLincoln) January 21, 2013
And, in case you were wondering:
Watching @mattpetronzio get mad about James Franco's poetry is making my morning. uninews.us/WaTEg3 (Maybe poetry should be in quotes.)— Chelsea Stark (@chelseabot) January 21, 2013
Read Franco's inaugural poem in its entirety here. What do you think of it? Let us know in the comments.
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