Blog Seven- LDT

Yusef Komunyakaa is a veteran from Vietnam and the author of Dien Cai Dau. Dien Cai Dau is translated into meaning “crazy”, which the Vietnamese used to describe the American soldiers. Having the title mean “crazy” suggests that Komunyakaa agrees with the Vietnamese in that the Americans were crazy for going in and fighting the war. The poems in this collection, tell about experiences that many war veterans experienced.

In the poem “Night Muse and Mortar Round”, Komunyakaa is describing the girl that is in every war story. She is the one that all men think of at night and is used to keep the men sane. “She shows up in every war. Basically the same…”(21) The women back home are not going to actually be there for the men, but the men still try and hold on to her. The idea that holding on to a women can save you, is seen in the last few lines where Komunyakaa describes what could have happened. “ Then you hear the blast rocks the trees and stars where you would’ve been that moment.” This idea was very helpful for men to escape the harsh realities of the war and dream with a woman just for a little bit.

In "Toys in a Field" the poem depicts Vietnamese children playing with the forgotten weapons and machinery left behind by American soldiers. Komunyakaa is using the children who are playing with the left machinery to symbolize how the many of the soldiers who went into war were just children themselves. Lines such as "Suspended in doorways of multimillion-dollar helicopters" and "they imitate vultures landing in fields” are used to show how the men fighting the battles and jumping into war scenes with no real sense of what is going on. The poem does a great job of showing how the men fighting did not feel like they were prepared for what came, and they were not prepared when they left for the life back home. This can be seen from the countless number of Veterans who have not been able to adjust back to life.

In “Thanks”, the poem shows the struggle it was for every soldier to just stay alive. Komunyakaa demonstrates the exertion through the use of nature imagery in describing different life saving situations. Throughout each situation the soldier finds himself in, they are saved by nature. In one scene a soldier is saved, by the grass revealing a hidden soldier, so the soldier can save his life. The Vietnamese had a lot of respect for the nature and environment they were in, and even though the Vietnamese were not as well “trained” and did not have as many supplies, but because they respected the nature they were in they were able to win. I think what Komunyakaa is doing is showing that the Vietnamese were right. The Americans should have listened learned from the Vietnamese, and the Americans should not have been so naive.