The Chameleon Couch

Being a result of the environment he grew up around, the poet Yusef Komunyakaa has an extensive amount of poetry revolving around the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. However, it wasn’t until he was in college and able to process his experience through it all that he began to write poetry. Having many collections of poetry relating back to those days, one of his most notable works is The Chameleon Couch, which was a finalist for the 2011 National Book Award for Poetry. In the book, he recounts his journeys in his life going on and into the future, while having it be defined by his past experiences. This is most evident through his poem “Blue Dementia”, which gives insight to his time in the Vietnam War, while also making subtle connections

By saying, “hold a swarm of words / inside his belly”, the narrator is alluding to the censorship faced during the time of war. With the Vietnam War being one that was extremely controversial with the question as to whether United States involvement was justified or not, it was common to see the government quiet those with dissenting opinions. Therefore, a strong sense of keeping one’s idea of peace and general anti-war movement to themselves was common to see within those not wanting to start problem. This was true as well as for soldiers in the war, as they had to repress those thoughts to get into a mindset fully focused on the war and making it long enough to survive. When it came to the daily life of black men, there was always a sense of keeping inside what they felt in order to not be jailed or beaten. Although this was left behind in some cases to start a movement, it was the general emotion black men faced while dealing with their issues at the time. The poem continues on to the next stanza, where Komunyakaa leaves the reader again with a view that could be seen with two different contexts, this time focusing in on death. In the context of the Vietnam War, the stanza is seen as the soldiers in battle mourning the lives of those lost in battle. He ends the stanza, “Another man done gone. / Another man done gone,” showing the constant feeling of death that is around him, waking up daily to new men gone. This comes along with the feeling of deep sadness, or depression, as the poet mentions, “when life tongued a reed / till blues & sorrow song”, having blues associated with a sad feeling. However, when spun around into a view of the Civil Rights Movement, this stanza could be seen as describing the situations that occurred with the Ku Klux Klan at the time and their lynchings. This is due to the fact that the mention