Yusef Komunyakaa

Yusef Komunyakaa A poet of war, struggle, and remembrance…

Intro

Early Life • Born April 29, 1947 • Originally James Willie Brown Jr. • Father was abusive • Musical influence

Military Life

After Vietnam

Literary Criticism • Mr. Komunyakaa . . . is more the dreamy intellectual”-New York Times, • “A Wordsworthian type whose worldly, philosophic mind might be stirred by something as homely and personal as a walk in a field of daffodils.“- Bruce Weber

Literary Criticism • "His poems, many of which are built on fiercely autobiographical details—about his stint in Vietnam, about his childhood—deal with the stains that experience leaves on a life, and they are often achingly suggestive without resolution." –New York Times • “Komunyakaa crafts a ‘neon vernacular.’”-Robyn Selman

LiteraryCriticism • "Komunyakaa's Vietnam poems rank with the best on that subject. He focuses on the mental horrors of war—the anguish shared by the soldiers, those left at home to keep watch, and other observers, participants, objectors, who are all part of the 'psychological terrain.'“- Kirkland C .Jones • "Though his tersely-phrased chronicles, like documentary photographs, give us the illusion that we are facing unmediated reality, they rely on a predictable though powerful set of literary conventions."

Yusef Komunyakaa