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<div class="gmail-inner-wrapper" style="height:750px;width:auto;overflow:hidden;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:founders_grotesk_textlight,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:19px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial"><div class="gmail-absolute-content" style="width:1006px"><div id="gmail-poem-content-wrapper" style="height:720px;width:557px;padding-right:10px;border-left:5px solid rgb(41,41,42);border-top-color:rgb(41,41,42);border-right-color:rgb(41,41,42);border-bottom-color:rgb(41,41,42);background:rgb(252,249,249);padding-top:15px;float:left"><div id="gmail-poem-content" style="overflow-y:auto;height:650px;padding-left:37px;padding-top:20px;padding-bottom:0px;margin-bottom:15px;margin-left:1px;margin-right:0px;float:none"><h1 class="gmail-page__title gmail-title" id="gmail-page-title" style="font-size:38px;line-height:1.20301em;margin:0px;font-family:"poets electra web italic","poets electra web","times new roman",Times,serif;font-weight:500;padding-bottom:10px;text-transform:none;letter-spacing:-2px;display:block">Facing It</h1><div class="gmail-view gmail-view-poems gmail-view-id-poems gmail-view-display-id-poem_author_dob_dod gmail-view-dom-id-e16bcc8d6c905aa77fd588b5bddf53eb" style="max-width:1260px"><div class="gmail-view-content"><div class="gmail-views-row gmail-views-row-1 gmail-views-row-odd gmail-views-row-first gmail-views-row-last gmail-clearfix"><div class="gmail-views-field gmail-views-field-nothing"><span class="gmail-field-content"><h2 class="gmail-subheading" style="font-size:15px;line-height:2.10526em;margin-top:1.05263em;margin-bottom:1.05263em;font-weight:500;font-family:founders_grotesk_textsemibold,Verdana,sans-serif;padding-bottom:15px"><span class="gmail-node-title"><a href="https://www.poets.org/node/44670" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);border-bottom:1px solid rgb(211,211,211);text-decoration:none"><span>Yusef Komunyakaa</span></a></span>,<span> </span><span class="gmail-date-display-single">1947</span></h2></span></div></div></div></div><div class="gmail-field gmail-field-name-body gmail-field-type-text-with-summary gmail-field-label-hidden" style="font-family:"poets electra web","times new roman",Times,serif;font-size:17px;line-height:24px;padding-right:15px;width:auto"><div class="gmail-field-items"><div class="gmail-field-item even"><pre style="margin:1.26316em 0px;font-family:"poets electra web","times new roman",Times,serif;font-size:17px;line-height:24px;white-space:pre-wrap;word-wrap:break-word">My black face fades,
hiding inside the black granite.
I said I wouldn’t,
dammit: No tears.
I’m stone. I’m flesh.
My clouded reflection eyes me
like a bird of prey, the profile of night
slanted against morning. I turn
this way—the stone lets me go.
I turn that way—I’m inside
the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
again, depending on the light
to make a difference.
I go down the 58,022 names,
half-expecting to find
my own in letters like smoke.
I touch the name Andrew Johnson;
I see the booby trap’s white flash.
Names shimmer on a woman’s blouse
but when she walks away
the names stay on the wall.
Brushstrokes flash, a red bird’s
wings cutting across my stare.
The sky. A plane in the sky.
A white vet’s image floats
closer to me, then his pale eyes
look through mine. I’m a window.
He’s lost his right arm
inside the stone. In the black mirror
a woman’s trying to erase names:
No, she’s brushing a boy’s hair.
</pre></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="gmail-poem-credit" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:founders_grotesk_textlight,Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:19px;font-style:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial"><div class="gmail-field gmail-field-name-field-credit gmail-field-type-text-long gmail-field-label-hidden" style="width:443px"><div class="gmail-field-items"><div class="gmail-field-item even"><p style="margin:0px 0px 1.26316em;font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px;color:rgb(168,168,170)">From<span> </span><i>Dien Cai Dau</i><span> </span>by Yusef Komunyakaa. Copyright © 1988 by Yusef Komunyakaa. Reprinted by permission of Wesleyan University Press. All rights reserved.</p></div></div></div></div>
<br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><a href="https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/facing-it?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Poem-a-Day%20%20March%2019%202018&utm_content=Poem-a-Day%20%20March%2019%202018+CID_a198768af7371fa1c8bb0b2dd35bc5f9&utm_source=Email%20from%20Campaign%20Monitor&utm_term=Facing%20It">https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/facing-it?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Poem-a-Day%20%20March%2019%202018&utm_content=Poem-a-Day%20%20March%2019%202018+CID_a198768af7371fa1c8bb0b2dd35bc5f9&utm_source=Email%20from%20Campaign%20Monitor&utm_term=Facing%20It</a><br clear="all"><div><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><p><b><font size="4" face="georgia, serif"></font></b></p></div><div style="border-top:none;border-right:none;border-left:none;border-bottom:1pt solid rgb(234,234,234);padding:0in 0in 15pt;margin-left:0.25in;margin-right:0in"><div><font size="4" face="georgia, serif"><b><font color="#333333"><span style="background-color:rgb(250,250,250)">"...indiffe</span></font><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51)">rence to e</span></b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51)"><br></span></b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51)">vil is worse than evil itself,</span></b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="georgia, serif"><b><span style="color:rgb(51,51,51)">that in a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible. "</span></b></font></div><p style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt"><b style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:large"> </b><span style="background-color:rgb(250,250,250);color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:georgia,serif;font-size:large"> Abraham Joshua Heschel </span><span style="font-size:large;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Georgia,"Times New Roman",Times,serif;text-align:justify"><br></span></p></div><div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr"><h1 style="margin:0px 0px 15px;color:rgb(24,24,24);font-weight:normal;padding:0px;font-size:14px;font-family:Merriweather,Georgia,serif;line-height:21px"><span></span></h1></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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