The horror, the horror of Iraq, in poetry - by: Sgt. Brian Turner

[kpete]

3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, Sgt. Brian Turner: I wanted to add to what people back home already knew" -- death counts, roadside bombings, prison torture -- "but at the same time I think we also need to know the humanity and the love, the loss, things on a deeper, emotional level. That to me is the domain of poetry."


Here, Bullet

If a body is what you want,

then here is bone and gristle and flesh.

Here is the clavicle-snapped wish,

the aorta's opened valves, the leap

thought makes at the synaptic gap.

Here is the adrenaline rush you crave,

that inexorable flight, that insane puncture

into heat and blood. And I dare you to finish

what you've started. Because here, Bullet,

here is where I complete the word you bring

hissing through the air, here is where I moan

the barrel's cold esophagus, triggering

my tongue's explosives for the rifling I have

inside of me, each twist of the round

spun deeper, because here, Bullet,

here is where the world ends, every time.


In his poems, he releases the passion and anger he won't express in conversation. In "Caravan," the most overtly political entry in his book -- and one that he strategically placed toward the end of the volume to not turn off conservative readers -- his conviction is unmistakable:

Caravan

"Today, in Baghdad, a bomb

kills forty-seven and wounds over one hundred,

leaving a crater ten feet deep. The stunned

gather body parts from the roadway

to collect in cardboard boxes

which will not be taped and shipped

to the White House lawn, not buried

under the green sod thrown over, box by box

emptied into the rich soil in silence

while a Marine sentry stands guard

at the National Monument, Tomb of the Unknown . . . "


more at:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/01/05/DDG4HNCE5T1.DTL

[Heidi]

1. Kick.

:kick: and recommended.

[MaggieSwanson]

2. Very sobering.

I saw "Winter Soldier" for the first time last night, and the only word I can think of to describe it is *brutal*.

http://www.wintersoldierfilm.com/

These two poems brought the documentary from 1971 roaring into the now of 2007 for me.

Thanks for sharing this, kpete.

Peace,

Maggie