Great Regulars: The poem's title, "The Duke Meets the Duke,"

recognizes that the actor, John Wayne, and, the jazz musician and composer, Edward Kennedy Ellington, shared a famous nickname.

Perhaps the two men met, perhaps they didn't, but the worlds in which they were cultural icons did meet. In Hollywood or in Harlem, in film or in music, each man helped to define the modern American spirit. Maybe the voice in the poem is the voice of cultural memory, a voice that tries to express the inveterate hope and the inevitable pain of American history. It's a voice that would equally welcome a meeting of Billie Holiday and Marilyn Monroe.

[by Wayne Zade]

The Duke Meets the Duke

from Walter Bargen: The Post-Dispatch: Missouri poets: Wayne Zade

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