POL performances: Facing It

I think that Branden Emanuel Wellington's performance of the poem "Facing It" by Yusef Komunyakaa was very effective and did justice to the poem. His voice was rough, as it should be, but not so much that you couldn't understand him. He used hand gestures, though not nervous ones or acted out the poem. His dramatization was not over the top nor could it have needed more. Wellington seemed confident, even though the poem is about a non-confident veteran losing his self identity.

I think that this poem is about a Vietnam War veteran feeling survivor's guilt that he survived but his comrades didn't. He looks at the names on the wall, feeling like his should be among them. Wellington enhanced this by sounding confused and sad as he said certain lines. His facial expressions helped with his dramatization and showing the meaning. You have to face it, whether it be your reflexion in the cold, hard granit, or a past full of unwanted memories you cannot change.