Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems (Wesleyan Poetry) - Softcover

Komunyakaa, Yusef

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0819512117 ISBN 13: 9780819512116

Publisher: Wesleyan University Press, 1993

Synopsis

Neon Vernacular An award-winning poet's testimony of the war in Vietnam. Full description

About this title

Review:

"Quite simply, Komunyakaa is one of the most extraordinary poets writing today...He takes on the most complex moral issues, the most harrowing ugly subjects of our American life. His voice, whether it embodies the specific experiences of a black man, a soldier in Vietnam, or a child in Bogalusa, Louisiana, is universal. It shows us in ever deeper ways what it is to be human."--Toi Derricotte, Kenyon Review

"Yusef Komunyakaa is a poet whose work, over ten years and many books, continues to grow in complexity and beauty, Neon Vernacular includes some of the best Vietnam testimony, in verse or prose, that I've ever read. Komunyakaa's whole oeuvre explores and re/members the double consciousness at work in the construction of African-American male identity."--Marilyn Hacker, The Nation

"This collection is comprised of poems from seven of Komunyakaa's previous collections. A master at interweaving memory and history to shape his experiences into narratives, he enriches his poems with details . . . As an African American, he defines a culture with striking imagery that is often misunderstood by mainstream readers. Highly recommended"--Library Journal

"Komunyakaa's best poems are jazzy and improvisational, razor-sharp pieces that tell us more about our culture than any news broadcast"--Bloomsbury Review

About the Author:

YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA is a professor in the Council of Humanities and Creative Writing at Princeton University. He is the author of seven Wesleyan titles including Pleasure Dome: New and Collected Poems (2001), Thieves of Paradise (1998), Magic City (1992), and Dien Cai Dau (1988).

About this edition

• Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0819512117
• ISBN 13: 9780819512116
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 188