Americans

I am puzzled by what it means to be an American. Of course, I have been one all my life, being born in Vallejo, California, registering for the draft, loving baseball, and all. But I am puzzled by what it means to be an American, in the sense that Billy Collins, Jack Kerouac, and Kormac McCarthy are American. Critics' reviews, Wikipedia pages, Poetry Foundation bios, describe these men as great American poets or writers. What does it take to be described not only as a poet, but an American poet? What is it about their work, whether it be their process or their results, that convinces an audience they represent an entire nationality? Am I from the same America that Faulkner and Hemingway were from?

Is it only that the subject matter of their creativity centers around American people or American culture? Hemingway's stories of expatriates at bullfights in Pamploma or serving in the Italian Army don't immediately remind me of the American Midwest.

Is merely documenting a road trip across the landscape from Los Angeles to Coney Island enough to justify such a claim? Robert Frank's book was titled "The Americans" and it is arguably one of the most influential photography books, especially in the United States. but he was born in Switzerland and his work was from the perspective of a foreigner. Despite his consequence to American creativity, a Google search proves he's a Swiss Photographer, not American.

So is it simply the success of Hemingway, coupled with the coincidence that he was born in the United States, enough to inherently attribute his qualifier?

Maybe we should refer to other professions with such a title- A great American plumber. A great American teacher. A great American farmer. A great American financial planner.

I cannot yet say for sure what it takes achieve such a title, but boy, I sure admire them for it.

My favorite book of poetry by the American poet, Billy Collins