http://www.ibiblio.org/ipa/poems/komunyakaa/biography.php
The link above is from a poetry website with Yusef as one of the main poets as seen by the page upon opening the link. It contains many references and good basic information about his life history. Komunyakaa was born 29 April 1947 to a carpinter, and was originally named after his father, but changed his name to Komunyakaa after his grandfather who originally came to the US from Trinidad. After enlisting in the Army in the late 60's, he served in Vietnam where most of his war experiences were forged. He later used these experiences to describe what happened in the gullys and cities of Vietnam, inspiring a multitude of poems from this man. This war affected him in many ways, including starting his writing career off in journalism as the "correspondent for and later editor of the military newspaper, The Southern Cross." (Poetry Archive) After leaving the Army and getting his BS, he still didn't really find his love for writing poetry until a simple writing workshop proved his writings to be very successful. This lead to a multitude of his writings, including that which is seen as the top picture to the left. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/yusef-komunyakaa The link above provides rather acceptable information for scholarly work, and is highly reliable. Komunyakaa eventually became a professor, writer, and Pulitzer Prize winner throughout his life. This man, still alive today, continues to provide poetry to the masses with the form of Jazz and connecting readers to life in the military, showing great talent with visualization and juxtaposition. Many examples of this may be seen within the poetry of his book, as he uses the Be-Bop of Jazz music within his poetry to have a smooth flow of words across the page. Truely, this man has talent. For more related information on this poet, please see the link on the Poetry Foundations Website above. A picture of him can be seen to the left at the bottom. |