Yusef Komunyakaa

Yusef Komunyakaa

Dec 06
Yusef Komunyakaa

A native of Bogalusa Louisiana, Yusef Komunyakaa won a Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1994 for his collection entitled Neon Vernacular.  You can take a look at a preview of Neon Vernacular by clicking here.  His poetry is like written literary jazz with a razor’s edge.  I guess for some reason I feel closer to him through the bricks his father laboured over and his southern stylings.  You see both of my grandfather’s worked in brick factories in Eastern Kentucky and as a child I could still see the etched lines in their hands from the hard labor they endured.  For a quick sample, you can listen to a recitation of My Father’s Love Letters by clicking here. Komunyakaa also draws incredible life experience from his time as a soldier in the Vietnam War.  His first hand accounts of the sites and sounds of Vietnam garner him a unique voice to reflect on the harsh realities of war.  He truly is one of our greatest living poets.  My favorite poem of his entitled “Tunnels” is an absolute triumph of imagery that tells of the Tunnel Rat in his platoon but in essence also portrays the grit, grim determination and pestilence that plague an individual at war.  He uses underground imagery that twists and turns you in it’s grasp. You feel as if you are down there with him in the dark.  If you are into poetry at all, I highly recommend picking it up.

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