...blameless as a blackbird in Hue...

Yusef Komunyakaa is a convincing poet. Each of Komunyakaa’s forty-three poems in Dien Cai Dau stands out as prominently as a name on a war memorial. The sharpness of Komunyakaa’s dialogue through verse is in unison with the experiences of the Vietnam War that have molded him.

Komunyakaa sets the pace of his collection of poems with “Camouflaging the Chimera.” Komunyakaa writes about how he and his comrades waited in the forestry of Vietnam. And how the waiting creates the anxiety of an attack. As Komunyakaa writes, “a world revolved under each man’s eyelid,” there is a sense of the premature aging that took place among soldiers during the Vietnam War.

In “Tunnels,” Komunyakaa talks about the suicide that it is to be a tunnel rat. Following “Tunnels” is the poem “Somewhere Near Phu Bai,” where Komunyakaa contemplates suicide. But his exhaustion becomes too daunting and Komunyakaa ends up “counting sheep before I know it.”

Dien Cai Dau is vocalized in the poem “Starlight Scope Myopia.” Komunyakaa views the enemy through the scope of his rifle. Wondering if his foes are talking about the lunacy of American soldiers in Vietnam. Dien Cai Dau, crazy Americans.

With “Red Pagoda,” Komunyakaa talks about a blood stained and wrecked pagoda. And how a symbol of tranquilly is forever defecated. Komunyakaa’s respect for nature and the peace it bestows is echoed in “A Greenness Taller Than Gods.” In the poem, Komunyakaa writes about his lieutenant who follows a map, a map that means nothing in the Vietnam forest.

There is a Buddhist boy at a pagoda in “The Dead at Quang Tri.” Perhaps it is the same pagoda as “Red Pagoda.” Perhaps it is a way for Komunyakaa last reminder of an innocent but necessary death.

“Hanoi Hannah” begins with the iconic American musician, “Ray Charles!” The poem is about a lady known only as Hannah, who spreads Vietnamese propaganda to the American soldiers. Hannah plays the ethnic card and echoes the dissatisfaction amongst African-American soldiers, “Soul Brothers, what you dying for?”

The poems of Dien Cai Dau all have a purpose. It is reckless to say that one poem holds greater impact then another. Each piece of Komunyakaa’s poetry resonates a different experience.

For example, during class on Tuesday Jody (no relation to the Jody in “Combat Pay for Jody”) exclaimed, “I love that poem!” as I did some in-class reading (aka cramming). Jody was referring to the poem, “Sappers.” I had just finished reading the poem and though little of it, except that it was well written. But since there was sincere acclaim for the poem, I decided to re-read “Sappers.”

Komunyakaa’s poem of sappers is one of his closest encounters to death. There is an exclusion for “Thanks,” which Komunyakaa utters gratefulness for a tree that deflected a sniper’s bullet from his flesh.

“Sappers” is an uncanny speedy poem. It is written with the urgency of the Vietnamese sappers who attempt to detonate explosives upon American soldiers by suicide. It is the Vietnamese version of Japan’s famous kamikaze pilots. Komunyakaa portrays “Sappers” romantically as he writes about the Vietnamese who “fling themselves into our arms.”

Although I have previously stated it that it should be deemed “reckless” to choose favorites from Komunyakaa’s Dien Cai Dau, I will do so in the interest of ending this blog entry. The two poems that captured my attention the most were “Dui Boi, Dust of Life” and “Losses.”

The child born to the woman in “Dui Boi, Dust of Life” is “half-broken.” As his father is. The child is a true innocent born into a human hell. The prospect of the child is future-less as his life was an unfair one from conception.

With “Losses,” Komunyakaa imagines himself through the eyes of a former comrade who is confused and disoriented upon readmittance to a world not plagued with war. But even with Komunyakaa’s vivid details there will never be a collective understanding of the ones whose “days are stolen.”

Komunyakaa ends Dien Cai Dau ends with the poem, “Facing It.” Like Michael Herr’s “Breathing Out,” Komunyakaa tries his best to end the Vietnam War chapter of his life. Komunyakaa touches the name of his friend on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. and immediately remembers the event that killed his friend.

The marble of the memorial will always serve as a reminder of the Americans who lost their lives for a cause no one understands.