Poetry is still very much “alive and well,” he said, and plays a particularly important role today in America and other democracies.

“Poetry poses questions,” he said. “And sometimes they’re not provocative or even metaphysical, but they are everyday questions about life and death that force us to confront the reality of the present as well as the future.”

Mr. Komunyakaa, 70, has been writing and reading poetry since he was a boy. Tennyson, Longfellow, Dunbar, Hughes and Hayden have all been part of his pursuit and growth.

And, of course, Whitman.

Like Whitman’s writing, Mr. Komunyakaa’s poetry has been shaped by the city we call home. Take, for example, his poem, “The Last Bohemian of Avenue A.” The book-length piece, still a work in progress, captures the tenor and psyche of the Lower East Side: the underbelly and exuberance that is New York.

“I didn’t realize I knew so much about New York until I started writing that poem,” he said.

Next year, Mr. Komunyakaa will help choose his successor. But in the meantime, here’s his advice to aspiring poets:

“Attempt to write every day, to read everything, to listen, to be in the world, to challenge ideas and to question ourselves,” he said. “Because it’s not just poetry; it’s the experience of inquiry.”