English 1020 Mother and son
hadjasouadoub
FacingitEGL1020.docxFacing It
Launch Audio in a New Window
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. I turn
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.
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.
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. In the black mirror
a woman’s trying to erase names:
No, she's brushing a boy's hair.
Yusef Komunyakaa, “Facing It” from Pleasure Dome: New and Collected Poems. Copyright © 2001 by Yusef Komunyakaa. Reprinted with the permission of Wesleyan University Press.
Source: Pleasure Dome: New and Collected Poems (Wesleyan University Press, 2001)
·
Hello class,
After reading "Facing It,” by Yusef Komunyakaa, respond to the following prompts. Feel free to add any other insights if you wish. Some context: "Facing It" presents the poignant emotions of a Vietnam War veteran (in this case, the speaker of the poem is actually Komunyakaa who served as a war correspondent during the Vietnam War).
1. The poet incorporates the use of metaphors (i.e. "I'm stone," "I'm a window") and similes ("..letters like smoke," "My clouded reflection eyes me like a bird of prey..") to enrich imagery and to heighten the speaker's conflicted emotions. Choose one simile and then one metaphor and discuss the appropriateness of the image and its effect on the imagery--in other words, why do you feel the poet chose this particular image and what effect does it have? 2. Can you determine two meanings to the title, "Facing It?" 3. Although this poem was written about the Vietnam War, what relevance does it pose in our present world?
