Blog 9

Hugh Martin, Brian Turner, and Yusef Komenyaka are veterans of war that are well known by their peers for their achievements in poetry. Martin and Turner actively served in the Iraqi war, writing many poems along the way conveying their firsthand experience in war. Similarly, Yusef Komenyaka expresses to the best of his ability the feelings of death, anxiety and coming to terms with the death and destruction occurring on both sides. These three poets all shared their remorse, in poems, for surviving or being the ones “lucky enough” to have survived the war. Both Turner and Komenyaka use personal accounts and writing styles to get across the suspense and impact of war.  All of these writers attempts to bridge the disconnect civilians have between war and normal life, by bringing their firsthand experience thru poems. The three of them have contributed a lot to poetry and have received recognition and prices for their work as a result.

I do not believe that war has changed since the Vietnam war. Although the Vietnam war used a draft to fight the war and the Iraq war used volunteer soldiers there are still fundamental similarities between the two. Both the Vietnam and Iraq war were a developed nation pinned up against a developing nation that had never directly attacked the United States. In both of these wars guerrilla warfare was used against the US military, making both wars a war of attrition. Battles still take place within one side´s territory, and is still one sided. However, there has been huge technological advancements both in the weaponry and battle tactics that the US military employs. The Vietnam and Iraq wars both have major political controversy surrounding their discussion, thus they will remain prominent in Americas history.

Death as poetry :)

    I love talking about mortality. Mortality is so precious yet often overlooked, or ignored, or swept under the doorstep. Humans fear mortality collectively, yet is personal in nature. That is what is so interesting about comparing Martin, Komenyaka, and Turner. There is difference in how mortality effects them all, how killing effects them all. Honestly they all approach killing with a solemn melancholy with a hint of nostalgia. I think that may be a human tendency though. Mortality hits you harder if you kill. Your own mortality is pinched closer to your mind if you take someone else's. In the Brian Turner poem "Sadiq" Brian Turner says that no matter what killing should make break your heart despite god, and adrenaline. Of course there is a despair in playing creator, and snuffing out someone's life with the pull of a trigger, yet there is also perhaps even more despair in knowing that it could have been you on the other side of the bullet. Mortality is poetic in this way, and it is not. I've always seen it as poetic. All men must die so all of the living must let go of them. Shed them, but remember them. It's probably the hugest paradox emotionally. All of the people I've known who've died it's been interesting. Unreal even. Almost when you realize they're gone it's like walking into a dream state. You say "oh" because you're amazed at death, but part of the "oh" is wait they're gone. I like to focused on the amazing part of "Oh." For death being such a large part of life, it is peculiar how Americans pay so little attention to it in certain light. :)

Here we go

While reading both Turner and Yomenyaka, I noticed many common themes. That shows that although no war is ever the same that maybe the affect it has on a person is very similar. When reading the Poems in Here, Bullet I struggle to determine if Turner is mentally stable. Well I do think that he is stable to an extent but he also has a mind flooded with thought and memories.

In Yomenyaka's work, he talks more about the war and how people are forgotten. Yomenyaka is much older and I think that you can determine that by reading his work.

In the Poem, R&R, by Turner, he divulges his age by the way he talks about the female companion he was with. I think that if Yomenyaka wrote about a female companion it would be worded differently. Generational Differences

Nonetheless, both authors did a wonderful job at telling their stories. I enjoyed reading them

Deadly Theme

  Brian Turners poems in "Here, Bullet", are all intriguing tales of a very misunderstood war, but there is the common theme among most of death, Its not fear of death, but the yearning or calling for it, as if Turner has accepted it completely. The interesting part is it never begins or seems like its every about his own mortality, but more of those around him who have already past.
the real emotional sense of these deathly poems though is he connects these dead to himself and actually seems to wish he was in their position. In "Autopsy", he describes a mortician performing an autopsy on a recently deceased Staff Sergeant. She plays an dark, uplifting song about dark clouds braking, as she proceeds to carefully cut out his heart and ponder on the extensive emotion that once filled that organ. Turner states how like everything else, his heart will be given to the earth as ash then relays how lucky those are who make it back to her operating table. He is saying how many who di in war are never found, buried were they fell, or many never got the respect and burial their body deserved. Its also something deeper as in he wants peace and when he looks around death is actually the most peaceful option around. He again restates this fact in "Repartition Day", which takes place passing through the bodies of soldiers  at a Red Cross. Turner writes " I want to lie down among them to be wrapped in sheets like flags of nations". He wants not only the peace that comes with death, but the overall honor of a solider who died. Death he suggests is never the end, but that the respect in ones own country will never be forgotten once your name is written down. and once that name is written he can have peace.

Turner vs. Komenyaka

For both Turner and Komenyaka they use personal accounts and writing styles to get across the suspense and impact of war.  For these two writers I think the point gets made that even though these two wars happened in separate times, for separate reasons they are still similar. Even though the Iraq war might have TECHNICALLY been more organized, moral, advanced etc. I think the common themes stay the same.  I think if we were to read all the war related poetry out there we could gather a common theme that war is destructive and it changes people. I think if we were given access to viewing the destruction of the Irag war the way the U.S. was during Vietnam our attitude and comprehension of war wouldn’t be so disconnected. 

In the poem 16 Iraqi Policemen, the speaker tries to find normalcy in the chaos that surrounds him after the explosion. He describes how the blood of the men forms art - forms like mustaches and rings - because he is trying to relate what he is seeing for the first time to something he already knows. This is natural for most people, because to be shocked by something is so jarring that their brains attempt to take what they are seeing and turn it into something they have seen before.

He also talks about Allah, his god. As most people would, he doesn't ask the question of, "Why didn't Allah stop this?" or "If there is an Allah, why would this happen?" Instead, he assumes that Allah is there with him, experiencing this in the same way that he is, and also questioning how people can be so cruel and how something like this could happen. He thinks that Allah wants to help everyone that he sees, like he does, but he doesn't know who to choose or where to go first, because there is so much pain and suffering going on in one small area.

Martin, Turner, and Komenyaka

Hugh Martin, Brian Turner, and Yusef Komenyaka are veterans of war who became writers with a specialization on poetry. Martin and Turner participated in Iraq and have written multiple poems about their experience, and similarly, Yusef Komenyaka does the same regarding the Vietnam War, Thus, the three of them express to the best of their ability the feelings that involved being there and surviving while others on both sides were not as lucky. The three of them have contributed a lot to poetry and have received recognition and prices for their work as a result.

War has not changed much since Vietnam. Battles still take place within one side´s territory, and is still one sided. However, there has been huge technological advancements. The transportation of heavy weaponry such as tanks with the addition of more advanced fighting jets have provided the U.S. with a major technological advantage to eliminate any chance for failure. Although, due to this advantage, the locals responded with the often use of the element of surprise, as Turner occasionally mentions hidden bombs in cars and streets in his poems "There are bombs under the overpasses, in trashpiles, in bricks, in cars" (Turner; "What Every Soldier Should Know"). Furthermore, one major difference since the Vietnam War was the fact that the civil population was not required to enroll in the military as they did back in Vietnam. Only full time soldiers and military specialists were sent to Iraq this time.