After Yahoo! News commissioned him and other "poets" to write poems on the occasion of Inauguration Day, actor/writer/superlative-lover James Franco wrote a little something about how he had no idea what to write about the president, but that he met him once. As expected, nobody likes it all that much. President Obama, if you were wondering, knew Franco from Spider-Man. Here's a sample: 

I met Obama once, in D.C., the Correspondents’ Dinner.
I was the guest of Vanity Fair, guided through D.C. by the wife
Of Christopher Hitchens, when he was alive. We went to Hitch’s place,
He had books from floor to ceiling, and said he had read

To Borges, when he was blind, Old Icelandic Eddas—
Then we waited in a private room with the likes of Tom Cruise,
And Katie Holmes, and Claire Danes. When Obama entered
The crowd converged. Finally, I got to shake his hand,

He knew me from Spider-Man. I asked him for advice,
I was scheduled to give the commencement speech at UCLA
And there were some undergraduate knockers against me;
He had been denied the usual honorary degree by Arizona State

You can also watch Franco read the poem himself in what is described as a "shadowy amateur vid" (see below). The poem, as is to be expected, has its detractors: 

@page88 @yahoonews @latimesbooks @nytimesbooks Yes, it's literary history when James Franco is commissioned to write a poem

— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) January 21, 2013

"Finally, I got to shake his hand/He knew me from Spider-Man." - Oh good, James Franco wrote a poem about Barack Obama. news.yahoo.com/president-obam…

— amy o'connor (@amyohconnor) January 21, 2013

I refuse RT @page88: Watch James Franco's shadowy webcam bed-in and call it celebrating Obama's inauguration #inaug2013 yhoo.it/11KGl9O

— Euan Rellie (@euanrellie) January 21, 2013

Other poets included in Yahoo!'s project include Pulitzer Prize winner James Tate and Pulitzer Prize winner and New Yorker editor Paul Muldoon. The official inaugural poet is Richard Blanco. 

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Esther Zuckerman