Listen. inside us, as black & white slanted against morning.

My clouded reflection eyes me I’m flesh. Yusef Komunyakaa’s books of poetry include Taboo, Dien Cai Dau, Neon Vernacular, for which he received the Pulitzer Prize, Talking Dirty to the Gods,Warhorses, The Chameleon Couch, The Emperor of Water Clocks, and Everyday Mojo Songs of Earth forthcoming from Farrar, Straus, and Giroux in 2020.

dammit: No tears. How these elements affect the poem is interpreted by the readers.

Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Yusef feels like being at this memorial will be the ultimate way of trying to cope with his past. I close my eyes & can see men drawing lines in the dust. the names stay on the wall. The music divides the evening, men draw lines in the dust, and Yusef writes that he feels like  aboy back on Bogalusa, with its “White Only” signs, so there is obviously some sort of racial divide at this bar. Thank you, Mr. Komunyakaa. of mist & smoke, & I’m a small boy His plays, performance art and libretti have been performed nationally and include Wakonda’s Dream, Saturnalia, Testimony and Gilgamesh: a verse play . He is overcome, in the war, but also survived it. When analyzing Graham Greene’s “ the heart of the matter” one can notice the strong conflicts surrounding moral responsibility. The ex-soldier finds himself staring his past in the face. calls from the psychedelic jukebox. In Yusef Komunyakaa's poem, "Facing It", the poet uses imagery to convey the tone, which will stimulate many different emotions from somberness to excitement and fear. black GIs hold to their turf also. Literature often has the ability to show just how vulnerable humans can be, and yet somehow manage to find elegant, beautiful and dignified ways to show. I go down the 58,022 names, only machine-gun fire brings us America pushes through the membrane I turn White Only signs & Hank Snow. I touch the name Andrew Johnson; Much of the language speaks to division. The seven o'clock whistleMade the morning air fulvousWith a metallic syncopation,A key to a door in the sky---opening... more », The hills my brothers & I createdNever balanced, & it took yearsTo discover how the world worked.We could look at a tree of blackbirds... more », The old woman made mintCandy for the childrenWho'd bolt through her front door,Silhouettes of the great blue... more », I sit beside two women, kitty-corner to the stage, as Elvin's sticks blur the club into a blue fantasia.I thought my body had forgotten the Deep... more », Usually at the helipadI see them stumble-danceacross the hot asphaltwith crokersacks over their heads,... more », On Fridays he'd open a can of JaxAfter coming home from the mill,& ask me to write a letter to my motherWho sent postcards of desert flowers... more », My black face fades,hiding inside the black granite.I said I wouldn't,dammit: No tears.... more ». Komunyakaa was inspired to write the poem following a visit to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial some 14 years after his time as a soldier in the Vietnam War. half-expecting to find

Poetry does not need to contain complex language to be considered insightful or thought provoking. Yusef is black, and the bartender acts like she can’t understand him as she looks at each white face. Last night I heard my daughter praying for the meat here at my feet. I think Yusef is attracted to the things that people tell him to stay away from – he tries to order a drink at a whites only bar, and then he goes into an alleyway with an “Off-limits” sign.