A Study of the poem

Facing It
by Yusef Komunyakaa

Susan Thorp Professor Plachta English 102 26 February 2012

Yusef Komunyakaa: A Biography

Yusef Komunykakaa was born and raised in Louisiana as the war for Civil Rights raged around him (Acad. Of American Poets).
UniVerse

Biography Continued

Poetry Foundation

Yusef was a correspondent in the United States Army as well as the editor of the Southern Cross during the Vietnam war (Acad. Of American Poets). What he saw there would shape his ideas and life forever.

Biography Continued

After earning a college education in the 1970s, Yusef became a widely known poet in the mid-1980s with well known works such as Dien Cai Dau (Acad. Of America Poets).

In 1994 Yusef Komunyakaa was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his book Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems. He was also awarded the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award for this work (Poetry Foundation).

Biography Continued

OpenLibrary

Biography Continued

Sampsonian Way

Yusef has used his vast knowledge, education, and life experience to teach college level courses at several different institutions since the late 1970s. He has also firmly cemented himself as one of the best poets of the Vietnam War (Poetry Foundation).

Facing It by Yusef Komunyakaa

My black face fades, hiding inside the black granite. I said I wouldnt, dammit: No tears. Im stone. Im flesh. My clouded reflection eyes me like a bird of prey, the profile of night slanted against morning. I turn this waythe stone lets me go. I turn that wayIm 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.

Poem Continued

I touch the name Andrew Johnson; I see the booby traps white flash. Names shimmer on a womans blouse but when she walks away the names stay on the wall. Brushstrokes flash, a red birds wings cutting across my stare. The sky. A plane in the sky. A white vets image floats closer to me, then his pale eyes look through mine. Im a window. Hes lost his right arm inside the stone. In the black mirror a womans trying to erase names: No, shes brushing a boys hair (Komunyakaa).

A Summary of Facing It

Serviceman facing the horrors of war.

KomoNews

Analysis
The symbolism presented by Yusef Komunyakaa in Facing It is powerful. Not only is he looking at the Vietnam Memorial, he is also looking into the past, which includes images of war he would like to forget. While looking through the names he almost expects to see his own. The reading of the name Andrew Johnson takes him back to the war and what happened to his comrade. It is evident that this is a very painful event for the speaker as he struggles to maintain his composure (Komunyakaa).

The tone of the poem is sad and somber. The speaker is looking back on the war with obvious disdain. Even after convincing himself that he will not cry, the speaker cries almost instantaneously as he enters the memorial. His visions and memories of the war are unbearable for him to contain. There is overwhelming feeling of regret and conflict for the speaker to endure (Komunyakaa).

Analysis Continued

The most powerful image in this work of poetry is at the very end. In the black mirror a womans trying to erase names: No, shes brushing a boys hair. (Komunyakaa). It is with this image that the cost of war is fully understood. Not only does it take away lives, it ruins others. It takes away loved ones from their families and sons from their mothers. These are wounds that can never be recovered from.

The words the author chose to use in this poem show how mightily the speaker is struggling with being in the here and now as opposed to the war he endured many years ago. His thoughts are fleeting and scattered as his mind bounces from the battlefield to the memorial. The word choice helps readers to understand the very deep conflict that is raging inside this veteran. He wants to move on with his life, away from the war, yet he is unable to as memories are constantly conjured up by everyday events such as a plane flying overhead (Komunyakaa).

A Readers Reaction

I found this poem to be riveting and poignant. We have all seen the war movies or heard stories about veterans, yet it never really dawned on me how the effects of war stay with a soldier or haunt their families for the rest of their lives. I was moved by Yusef Komunyakaas work in a way that few poems have moved me before. I felt that he was allowing us to get a glimpse into the shadows that still reside in his heart even after all these years have gone by since Vietnam.
Avitable

A Readers Reaction Continued

The image of the mother brushing her sons hair at the end of the poem was very touching. I cannot imagine the pain of losing a child or the loss that lingers in your heart for the remainder of your life. I thought the author captured the moment perfectly and allowed me to feel some of the grief of this mother through the words he chose.
As my children grow and get older, they are still my babies. No matter how old my son is, to me he will always be my little boy. I feel like those are the same thoughts of this mother as she remembers her little boy. I wonder if she asked herself when she made the transition from doting mother to a rambunctious little boy to grieving mother of a dead serviceman.

Puelo

Saunders

Theme

The them of Facing It by Yusef Komunyakaa is war and the lasting effects it has on people. Not just the ones who fought in it, but their loved ones and society as a whole. When weighing the costs of war, it is of great importance to weigh all the costs. The economic effects and death toll are only two portions of a much larger picture. Yusef Komunyakaa helps us to see the bigger picture.

WORKS CITED
Avitable. Folded Flag. Moxie Bird, 2011, Web. 25 Feb. 2012. http://www.moxiebird.com/2011/08/kinetic-strike-takes-out-taliban-fighterswho-caused-us-soldier-casualties.html/folded_flag Komunyakaa, Yusef. Facing It. Backpack Literature. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 3rd ed. Boston: Longman, 2010. 555-556. Print. Mendez, Melody. Traveling Vietnam Wall Stirs Emotions. KomoNews, 2009. Web. 27 Feb. 2012. http://www.komonews.com/news/local/53240262.html Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems. OpenLibrary, 28 April 2010. Web. 26 Feb. 2012. http://openlibrary.org/works/OL14959853W/Neon_vernacular?m=history Puelo, Stephen. Eagle Ceremony. Stephen Puelo, n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2012. http://www.stephenpuleo.com/eagle_photos.htm

WORKS CITED
Sampsonia Way. Sampsonia Way. SW. 2010. Web. 27 Feb. 2012 http://www.sampsoniaway.org/blog/2010/09/21/picking-a-lock-to-the-mindjail-in-the-city-of-asylum/ Saunders, A. Little Boy Pencil Drawing. Deviant Art. n.d Web. 25 Feb. 2012. http://asaunders.deviantart.com/art/Little-boy-pencil-drawing-8137803 Yusef Komunyakaa. Poets. The Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2012. http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/22 Yusef Komunyakaa. Poetry Foundation. The Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2012. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/yusef-komunyakaa

Yusef Komunyakaa. UniVerse. UniVerse. n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2012. http://www.universeofpoetry.org/usa.shtml