The Wizard of Westwood Passes On

Sunday Verse: Yusef Komunyakaa (1947- ) Facing It

Facing It

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.

My 2010 Book List

Distinguished

Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
The Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum
American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson - Joseph L. Ellis
The Investor's Manifesto - William Bernstein
Common Sense on Mutual Funds - John Bogle
Dien Cai Dau - Yusef Komunyakaa

Excellent

Flight - Sherman Alexie
The Little Book of Common Sense Investing - John Bogle
Enough - John Bogle
Liberty and Tyranny - Mark Levin
The Four Pillars of Investing - William Bernstein
The Investor's Manifesto - William Bernstein
Facts About the Moon - Dorrianne Laux
Smoke - Dorrianne Laux

Very Good

The Basketball Diaries - Jim Carroll
A Red Convertible: Selected and New Stories, 1978-2008 - Louise Erdich
The Bogelheads' Guide to Investing - Taylor Larimore
The Bogelheads' Guide to Retirement - Taylor Larimore
God's Silence - Franz Wright
The Lies About Money - Ric Edelman
Native Guard - Natasha Trethewey

Good

Taboo - Yusef Komunyakaa
The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets - Peter Schiff
Fortune - Joseph Millar
The Book of Nods - Jim Carroll
One Foot in Eden - Ron Rash

Fair

Warhorses - Yusef Komunyakaa
Void of Course - Jim Carroll

Poor

Rich Dad, Poor Dad - Robert T. Kiyosaki

Pet Peeves: Che and Mao T-Shirts

Do the people that wear these T-shirts understand what these people really were? Che was just a small-time chump sicko killer whose one iconic picture seems to have caught the imagination of the know-nothing crowd. Mao just happens to be the largest mass murder of all time, makes Hitler look like a rank amateur. Their faces will not be adorning my body in any fashion.

Pet Peeves: Apologizing for That Which Needs No Apology

Click to enlarge image.  Sorry, but these documents need no apology or modern reinterpretation, and the country is in dire need of rediscovering the values contained within.