American Literature / Unit 18 AML 1726 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Yusef Komunyakaa and "Facing It"
Captions available
The idea
Komunyakaa served a tour in South Vietnam as a correspondent and earned a Bronze Star. "Facing It" appeared in the nineteen eighty-eight collection Dien Cai Dau, Vietnamese for crazy in the head, and reflects on his first visit to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington.
In practice
A poem about standing at a black wall.
Where people slip
The collection's title is what the locals called soldiers.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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