0. FACING IT Yusef Komunyakaa “Obrego, Leslie Magallon, Jasmine
Rodriguez, Samantha
Keh, Kyra
Aguilar-Gomez, Laurenn
FACING IT
Yusef Komunyakaa

1. Yusef Komunyakaa Born April 1943 in Bogalusa, Louisiana
Raised in the beginning of Civil Rights Movement
African-American, highly educated
Served in Vietnam War
As editor of Southern Cross
Did not write poems until 14 years later
Wrote about difficulties of fighting along white soldiers

2. VIETNAM VETERAN MEMORIAL
Built 1982 by Maya Lin
Komuyakaa visited for the first time 1983
Experience inspired to reflect on feelings about the war

3. What the author is trying to say.
No matter where you go, your past will always remain. It’s important to reflect and bear the effects. You do not have the power to change the past, but accept it. Face it.

4. Poem Structure
Freeverse in poetic form
No meter
No rhyme

5. Literary Devices Caesuras and enjambments
Imagery, similes, and personifications
Emotional, mournful tone
Simple, contradicting diction
stone to flesh
clouded to eyes of predator
night to morning

6. hiding inside the black granite. I said I wouldn’t, dammit: No tears.
My black face fades,
hiding inside the black granite.
I said I wouldn’t,
dammit: No tears.
I’m stone. I’m flesh.
My clouded reflection eyes me
like a bird of prey, the profile of night
slanted against morning.
Black face blends in, color
granite used to build
Tries to hide emotion, but fails
stone: hard, solid
flesh: fragile, living quality, soft
Vision cloudy from tears
Reflection looks at him as if he was prey

7. this way - the stone lets me go. I turn that way - I’m inside
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
again, depending on the light
to make a difference.
I go down the 58, 022 names,
half-expecting to find
my own in letters like smoke.
Feels relief when turned away
Feeling of imprisonment when looking back
Confident in number
Feels as if he could have been dead
Smoke gives surreal quality

8. the names stay on the wall. Could be comrade flashback of grenade
I touch the name Andrew-Johnson;
I see the booby trap’s white flash.
Names shimmer on a woman’s blouse
but when she walks away
the names stay on the wall.
Could be comrade
flashback of grenade
Shares name with 17th president
vetoed Civil Rights Bill
Caucasian, white flash
Woman walks away without hesitation
Did not participate in the war
Shimmer is beauty
Cut short by flashback

9. Brushstrokes flash, a red bird’s wings cutting across my stare.
The sky. A plane in the sky.
A white vet’s image floats
closer to me, then his pale eyes
look through mine. I’m a window.
He’s lost his right arm
inside the stone.
Brushstrokes of a painting
In reality, it’s a bird
In memory, it’s a war aircraft
Seeing an apparition
Yusef becomes a window
Vet could see ‘through’
Both have seen war
Both are inside the wall

10. No, she’s brushing a boy’s hair.
In the black mirror
a woman’s trying to erase names:
No, she’s brushing a boy’s hair.
Sees the woman’s action as trying to remake history
Shows Yusef’s feeling of it
Stuck in the past, unable to accept it