Blog 6 RR

In "2527th Birthday of the Buddha", Komunyakaa describes the Buddhist monks' protests that took place on Buddha's birthday. The Quang Duc, the first protester, called for all of the press to meet him on a street corner in Saigon. He protested the war and religious laws in Vietnam that prevented Buddhists from carrying the Buddhist flag on Buddha's birthday. He did this by covering himself in gasoline and lighting himself on fire. The language used in this poem of nature and earth are meant to show how important the earth and nature are to Buddhist beliefs and to Vietnamese culture. I think Komunyakaa uses these descriptions to protest the war by showing how much of the nature and culture of the Vietnamese people were literally being burned to the ground, much like Quang Duc. He also shows protest when he says, "the high winds that started in California fanned flames...". I believe that he is talking about the anti-war protest that began in large part in California, and how it has fanned its "flames" across the world to Saigon.

In "Tu Do Street", Komunyakaa talks about the race divide that followed him from the southern US all the way to Vietnam. He states that "only machine gun fire brings us together." He talks about how a mama san in a bar ignores him when he tries to buy a drink, looking around for white men to sell to. He also talks about the bars and brothels that are further away from the main street, down dark alleys, that black men are somewhat accepted in. At the end of the poem, he writes, "There's more than a nation/ inside us, as black & white/ soldiers touch the same lovers/ minutes apart, tasting/ each other's breath,/ without knowing these rooms/ run into each other like tunnels/ leading to the underworld." In this excerpt we learn that Komunyakaa can see beyond the color divide, and finds it ironic that the only place where black and white men are allies are on the battlefield, despite the fact that they sleep with the same women, indirectly swapping each other's spit. We see in this poem how much discrimination there is during the Vietnam war. It is ironic to me that the US discriminated against African Americans, forcing them to eat at different restaurants, use different restrooms and water bubblers, etc, but they had no problem sending them to die for our country. I think that Komunyakaa may feel the same way.

In "Tunnels", Komunyakaa describes the soldiers whose job is to go into the VC tunnels. He describes the darkness and uncertainty, "feeling blessed for each inch of the unknown." Komunyakaa says that he feels like he's down there with the "tunnel rat". This poem describes the feeling that Komunyakaa has about the war. The uncertainty, darkness, unknown, having to forget anything else around you except for the task at hand. At the end of the poem, he writes that the tunnel rat is "loving the weight of the shotgun/ that will someday dig his grave." This shows the pessimism that Komunyakaa carries with him about the war, and how he feels like it is a lost cause.