Derek Walcott, riding the waves.  Photo Copyright © 2016.

It is as if there is a shadow 
of something whole

interrupting the relentless clouds
of snow swirling about us,

and suddenly, the dark body 
of steel, wood, and canvas,

sailing through with the warm laughter 
of a singing troupe drunk

with careless delight,
becomes everything in the world.

This is how the news 
that Kamau Brathwaite had won

the medal named after that tricky, 
tricky New Hampshire poet,

who sardonically goaded
his earnest best friend to war,