SOURCE: A review of Neon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems, in VLS, No. 116, June, 1993, pp. 6-7.

In the review below, Selman examines stylistic features of Komunyakaa's poetry, noting in particular his focus on music in Neon Vernacular.

       An old anger drips into my throat,
       & I try thinking something good,
       letting the precious bad
       settle to the salty bottom.
       Another scene keeps repeating itself:
       I emerge from the dark theatre,
       passing a woman who grabs her red purse
       & hugs it to her like a heart attack.

Most of Yusef Komunyakaa's poems rise to a crescendo, like that moment in songs one or two beats before the bridge, when everything is hooked-up, full-blown. Over the course of Komunyakaa's seven books, much has been made of the recurring themes in his work: autobiography, African American experience in the South and in Vietnam. Much has also been said about the music in...