A poetic struggle

Using poetry, poets detail struggles people face, by using figurative language. Yusef Komunyakaa's poem "Facing It" shows more than someone staring at the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial wall. The speaker illustrates the effects of war and the toll it takes on a person's mind. Glazing upon the wall, the speaker reflects of times he went to Vietnam and the horrors war brings. The speaker starts by saying "My black face fades, hiding inside the black granite" conveying two things, the literal meaning of a mirror reflection and the speaker loses a sense of himself. Using the wall once more, the speaker states "I'm stone. I'm flesh" makes this individual seem harden, but still a human being with feelings. Counting 58,022 veterans whose names are on the Memorial wall, the speaker feels surprised that his name is not on the wall, because he feels partially dead. At the end, the speaker sees a lady brushing off names off the granite wall, that perhaps death itself is taking names of his list. Sadly, the speaker comes back to reality and realizes it is only a mother's reflection brushing off her son's hair. In the end, the speaker come to terms with reality.

Natasha Trethewey's YouTube video describes three poems that show racial struggles. One of the three poems is called "Incident." In this poem, the speaker is a child describing an event of the "KKK" lighting a cross on some one's yard. Through a child's perspective, the speaker does not realize what is going on, because the poem refers to the men in white gowns as "angels" and the burning cross as a "Christmas tree." The "angels" disappear like they were never there. The poem ends "we tell the story every year" makes this seem like a reoccurring problem. Through the eyes of a child, the literal meaning becomes more than what appears.