Dien Cai Dau

…Komunyakaa with the publication of Dien Cai Dau in 1988. The poems in that collection are his first to directly address his experiences in Vietnam. The book’s title, which means “crazy” in Vietnamese, was the description applied to American soldiers by Vietnamese people during the war. He wrote of the…

…into his war experience in Dien Cai Dau, the title being Vietnamese for “crazy.” The term was used by Vietnamese civilians to describe American soldiers. The collection contains one of his most anthologized poems, “Facing It,” in which Komunyakaa describes visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., for the…