SOURCE: Aubert, Alvin. “Yusef Komunyakaa: The Unified Vision—Canonization and Humanity.” African American Review 27, no. 1 (spring 1993): 119-23.

In the following essay, Aubert argues that Komunyakaa successfully combines his African-American and Euro-American cultural heritage to express a unified vision in his poetry. Aubert observes that Komunyakaa's Vietnam War poetry expresses the shared humanity of the black and white soldiers who fought in Vietnam.

In an interview in the journal Callaloo, Yusef Komunyakaa, author of seven collections of poems, expresses his admiration for poets whom he considers to have achieved a “unified vision” in their poetry, an achievement he apparently strives for in his own work. A closely associated, if not identical, goal and a source of tension in Komunyakaa's poetry is his desire to gain admittance into the American literary canon, but not at the expense of surrendering his African American cultural identity.

At the core of Komunyakaa's pursuit...