Why does Komunyakaa tell us his face is black?

For this Discussion, I have divided you into small groups. After reading “Facing It,” by Yusef Komunyakaa, if this is the poem you choose to comment on, please post your comment. This comment should be at least three sentences long. If you prefer to comment on “The Colonel,” go to the next page.
Here are some things to think about when considering this poem:
Why does Komunyakaa tell us his face is black? Why is his race significant? What men were drafted and went to fight in Vietnam? Why does he describe his face as “hiding” in the granite?
He told himself ‘no tears” but immediately finds himself crying. Why? In what ways is he both “stone” and “flesh”?
Why is his reflection like a “bird of prey”? What is a bird of prey? The reflection is the man inside the stone, the man inside that war. What kind of man was he when he was a soldier in Vietnam?
He walks down the pathway along the memorial and tells us the letters that form the names look like “smoke.” Why is that an apt way to describe the names of those who died in the war? Why does he almost expect to see his own name up there? What part of him has died?
When he touches Andrew Johnson’s name, what doe he recall?
What is the poet trying to tell us when he says he sees the names superimposed on the reflection of a woman’s blouse, but when she walks away the names do not follow her? Is this the same experience for the poet, or is he telling us it is not as easy for him to let this experience go? How does he feel about that woman–is he envious, resentful?
When Komunyakaa crosses paths with a white vet–why does he tell us the man is white and how does he know the man is a vet, do you think? In what ways are Komunyakaa’s eyes “a window”? A window into what? They are men of two different races but what do they share?
What does it mean that the man has “lost his right arm/inside the stone”? What is the right arm a symbol of and what does it mean that the man has lost it in the war? Has he literally lost an arm or is Komunyakaa speaking metaphorically about something else the man (and the poet) has lost in that war?
In the final lines of the poem, Komunyakaa describes the memorial as a “black mirror.” What kind of present or future does the mirror reflect? He sees a woman making a motion with her arm and he thinks she’s trying to erase names. Why does he think that and what does it reflect about his own desires? Ultimately he see that she is “brushing a boy’s hair.” That image is both commonplace and chilling. For what future does Komunyakaa fear she is grooming the boy?
Your comment may address any one of these issues–or discuss some element of the photograph I have not mentioned above.
You will receive a Complete if you have done the post for this poem. You may comment on this poem OR the next poem. You do not need to do both.

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