James Baldwin’s - Sonny’s Blues

War and Power

All three of these poems tell of the appalling aspects of war, hatred and power which still exists in today’s world.

In Carolyn Forche’s, “The Colonel”, she describes, in my opinion a visit to the colonel house where she wants to discuss probably human rights issues or she was just there to interview him. I felt she didn’t want to offend or upset him in any way because he seems like a very cruel person and could possibly harm her, because, although she was a guest at his house and is not a treat to him he had a pistol on the cushion beside him. She was with a friend who seemed to know the colonel much better than her. For instance, Carolyn Forche’s friend signals her with his eyes to say nothing because he knew the colonel was upset and anything she said would further anger him and the consequence could be great. The colonel’s family seems like any normal family to me, the daughter sitting on a chair filing her nail, the son went out for the night and the mother home serving her guests. The colonel’s home seems inaccessible .He has broken bottle embedded in the walls around the house to scoop the kneecaps off one’s legs or cut cut’s one’s hands to lace if they try to gain access in the colonel’s house. He also has grating on his windows. You get the picture of how brutal and arrogant he is when he left the room and came back with a bag a human’s ears and spilled it on the table they were dining and said to her, “As for the rights of anyone, tell your people they can go fuck themselves”.

Yusef Komunyakaa poem, “Facing It”, is based on the Vietnam veteran’s memorial in Washington. The poem starts off of him visiting the memorial site and looking at the names which are engraved in the black granite wall. When he said, “I’m stone, I’m flesh”, to me he is telling himself I am strong like a stone, but I am still human. He has strong emotional feelings