The poem “Facing It” by Yusef Komunyakaa is a meditation on the first time Komunyakaa visited the US Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC. Komunyakaa served in the Vietnam War as an Army journalist for the military newspaper, Southern Cross, until he was discharged in 1966. He began writing about the war approximately 14 years after coming home from Vietnam.

Prior to this, he had only written one poem about his experience in the war, and “Facing It” marked a pivotal point in Komunyakaa’s writing career. The war poem was critical in inspiring one of his most acclaimed collections of poetry, the 1988 collection Dien Cai Dau, which heavily reflects on the consequences and traumas of the Vietnam War, as Komunyakaa grapples with his memories, choices, and relationships from those years of his life.

In many ways, “Facing It” represents a generous and tender visit to the brutal past, embodied by the poet “facing”—confronting—the physical reminder of the men and women who fought and died in the war. Although many literary critics have praised the poem for being humane and poignant, others have commented on how indifferent it is towards the true horrors of the war during which many Vietnamese and Americans were killed or brutalized. Still, the poem remains among the most eminent examples of how humans are able to cope with who they are as a collective nation and as individual citizens.

Poet Biography

Komunyakaa was born in 1947 in Bogalusa, Louisiana. His childhood was shaped by the emergence of the Civil Rights movement in the deep American South. As a Black man, his life and career has largely been shaped by racial tensions in America, but he continues to overcome barriers in becoming a forefront poet of his generation. 

Komunyakaa served in the United States Army from 1969 to 1970 as a news correspondent. In addition, he was appointed as the managing editor of the Southern Cross newspaper, for which he was eventually awarded a Bronze Star. Between 1973 and 1979, he attained his bachelor’s degree at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, published his first book of poetry—Dedications & Other Darkhorses—and followed his debut with a second book—Lost in the Bonewheel Factory. Additionally, he received a master’s degree in creative writing from Colorado State University and a master’s of fine arts also in creative writing from the University of California, Irvine.

In 1988, Komunyakaa was given the The Dark Room Poetry Prize for his efforts writing about the Vietnam War in Dien Cai Dau. Although his career has been riddled with awards and highlights, his writing reached new heights in 1994 when he was chosen for the Pulitzer Prize for his book Neon Vernacular: New & Selected Poems 1977-1989.

Other notable honors include: the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the William Faulkner Prize from the Université de Rennes, the Thomas Forcade Award, the Hanes Poetry Prize, fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the Louisiana Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He currently teaches as a Distinguished Senior Poet in New York University's graduate creative writing program and has published over 14 poetry collections.

Poem Text

Komunyakaa, Yusef. “Facing It.” 1988. Academy of American Poets.

Summary

The poem is about the speaker’s visit to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC. The memorial is a long wall made from a reflective obsidian and is etched with the many names of fallen US soldiers. The speaker is forced to confront his place among the wall, but also as a Black American man who was a participant in the horrors and traumas of what took place during the war. As he tells himself not to cry, he sees planes and clouds in the sleek reflection, and also remembers the brutality of the war in glimpses of memory while he scans the many names. The poem ends with an image of a woman in reflection who looks like she’s trying to scrub the names off the wall, but is actually just brushing a young boy’s hair.