Dien Cai Dau

Dien Cai Dau | Yusef Komunyakaa

Ghosts share us with the past & future
but we struggle to hold on to each breath...

https://plasticekphrastic.com/2017/11/11/jungle-surrender/

Readergrrl This is a wonderful collection. I use “Facing It” every year with my HS seniors. Many of them know very little about the Vietnam War but have visited or at least heard of the VVM in DC. We learn about the memorial‘s architect and her design purpose while also reading short stories from The Things They Carried. They are always impressed with what they learn. 2y

charl08 @Readergrrl that sounds like a great way to learn whilst reading some beautiful poetry. In my (English) school we studied WW1 poetry at 15/16 (Owen, Sassoon etc) and I can still quote bits of it. 2y

Readergrrl @charl08 Dulce et Decorum est!! One of my favorites! That and The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner by Randall Jarell are two of my favorite war time poems to teach! 2y

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vivastory

Dien Cai Dau | Yusef Komunyakaa

#NationalPoetryMOnth Day 2: When Dylan was awarded the Nobel in '16 one of my first thoughts was that Komunyakaa should have won. And I stand by that. I could have easily selected numerous poems as a favorite by him. One of my favorite readings of all time was in Minneapolis in Feb. '11 featuring Komunyakaa & Gary Jackson. This poem is from his collection Dien Cai Dau about his experience in Vietnam. The poems run the range of human emotion,

vivastory from here where he offers a prayer of thanks to “You and I are Disappearing.“ The latter is a poem of outrage & grief filtered through surreal images over a young napalm victim, calling to mind the picture of Phan Thị Kim Phúc OOnt (“Napalm girl“.) Link to the full text of “Thanks“:
https://poets.org/poem/thanks-0 2y

Branwen I love this whole poem, but those last four lines were phenomenal! 😍 2y

vivastory @Branwen It was tough choosing one of his. His volume of selected poems “Neon Vernacular“ is incredible. 2y

charl08 Thank you for the recommendation- I'd not come across him, but have just finished the tagged one. Strong stuff.🙌 2y

vivastory @charl08 Thanks! I'm glad to hear that! 👏 2y

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