SOURCE: "A Poet's Values: It's the Words over the Man," in The New York Times, May 2, 1994, pp. C11, C18.

[In the article below, based on a conversation with Komunyakaa, Weber relates Komunyakaa's background and origins, various aspects of his writings, and his views on the writing process.]

Yusef Komunyakaa, who won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry three weeks ago, is still receiving congratulations from acquaintances as he walks the hallways and quadrangles of the Indiana University campus here. People seem surprised to see him, as if he had been in hiding, calling out to him "Hey! Man of the hour!" and the like.

You would know he was a shy man just from the way he acknowledges his well-wishers, an embarrassed-seeming bow of the head, an abbreviated wave of the hand. And indeed, in the pantheon of poet stereotypes—the vitriolic, passionate drunkard is one; the wry, acerbic...