Slam, Dunk, & Hook

"Facing It" by Yusef Komunyakaa (1988)

Probably the best-known of Komunyakaa’s Vietnam poems, “Facing It” dramatizes a Black war veteran’s hallucinatory experience in front of the Vietnam memorial, as present melts into past and human flesh melts into stone.

"Old Men Playing Basketball" by B.H. Fairchild (1998)

The players in Fairchild’s basketball poem love the sport as much as the boys in “Slam, Dunk, & Hook,” but their bodies are no longer capable of performing. There seems to be little in common between the players in the two poems, until Fairchild’s final stanza when the men turn into winged boys.

"Whilst Leila Sleeps" by Jackie Kay (1989)

This poem by the Black Scottish poet Jackie Kay has no connection to sport. Yet similar themes of power and vulnerability, innocence and knowledge emerge, while the use of enjambement and short sentences creates a comparable level of heightened tension.

"About Yusef Komunyakaa: A Profile" by Susan Conley in Ploughshares (1997)

This is a detailed profile based on an interview with Komunyakaa, in which he reflects on his childhood, the influence of his early reading of the Bible, and his important first encounters with James Baldwin.