Yusef Komunyakaa
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Yusef Komunyakaa (1947- ) is an eminent American poet who currently teaches at New York University. Komunyakaa is a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and of the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. His subject matter ranges from the African-American experience through rural Southern life before civil rights and his experience as a soldier during the Vietnam War.
He was born and grew up in the small town of Bogalusa, Louisiana before and during the Civil Rights era. He served a tour of Army duty during the Vietnam War, when he acted as a journalist for the military paper, covering major actions, interviewing fellow soldiers and publishing articles on Vietnamese history and literature. Upon his return to the states he turned to poetry, eventually becoming one of the most popular and important American writers of his generation. He was married to the Australian novelist Mandy Sayer for ten years, and was engaged in a long-term relationship with the poet Reetika Vazirani, who died tragically along with their child Jehan in 2003.
Komunyakaa first gained wide recognition for the collection "Copacetic" in 1984, which fused jazz rhythms and syncopation with super-hip colloquiallism and the unique, arresting poetic imagery which has since become his trademark. It also outlined an abiding desire in his work to articulate cultural truths that remain unspoken in daily discourse, in the hope that they will bring a sort of redemption:
"How can love heal/ the mouth shut this way.../ Say something that resuscitates/ us, behind the masks"
His success continued with "I Apologize for the Eyes in My Head", but his true breakthrough moment came with the publication of "Dien Cai Dau" -- pronounced "dinky dow", which means "crazy" in Vietnamese -- which focused on his experiences as a soldier in Vietnam. Included was the poem "Facing It" which records his experience visiting the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial in Washington D.C. and has become perhaps Komunyakaa's signature poem:
"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."
Bibliography
- "Lost in the Bone Wheel Factory", Lynx House 1979, ISBN 0899240186
- "Copacetic", Wesleyan 1984, ISBN 081951117X
- "I Apologize for the Eyes in My Head", Wesleyan 1986, ISBN 0819551449
- "Dien Cai Dau", Wesleyan 1988, ISBN 0819511641
- "Magic City", Wesleyan 1992, ISBN 0819512087
- "Neon Vernacular", Wesleyan 1993 ISBN 0819512117
- "Thieves of Paradise", Wesleyan 1998 ISBN 0819564222
- "Pleasure Dome", Wesleyan 2001, ISBN 0819564257
- "Talking Dirty to the Gods", Farrar Straus Giraux 2001, ISBN 0374527938
- "Taboo", Farrar Straus Giraux 2004, ISBN 0374291489
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