Farther investigation of poetry of witness

From Our investigation of poetry of witness last week and from reading the articles "The Necessity to Speak" by Sam Hamill and the discussion of poetry of witness by Carolyn Forché there are many great examples of the true meaning of poetry of witness. The ideas presented in these two essays also works well to help us better define poetry of witness

In "The Necessity to Speak" Hamill does a great job describing the ideas of victims and abuse in our society, this is very relevant to our investigation of poetry of witness because one of the definitions of poetry of witness is describing ones pain through the means of poetry. In this essay Hamill brings us in to the life of the abused and by doing this allows us to witness from this point of view exactly as for example The poem “Immigrants in our own land” Brings us into the life and struggles of a new inmate entering the prison system.

            In the article by Carolyn Forché Poetry is broken up into two easily defined categories, personal and political along with a third more abstract category the “social”. This categorization is a great tool to break up a poem to bring out the true meaning of the poem. This third category that she describes is related to all the unknowns and tough topics that in our society we are often sheltered from. So in this regard I agree with Forché when she says that “By situating poetry in this social space, we can avoid some of our residual prejudices”. If we only focus on the first two categories we will be limited to only the very obvious trues in a poem and never really reveal the authors true struggles.

 Sources

Image source; http://204poetryworkshop.blogspot.com/2009/09/at-this-shoreline-of-inarticulate.html

 

Carolyn Forché: on a Poetry of Witness, http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/forche/witness.htm

         

War Poems

Through reading the poems of witness one of the poems that caught my attention was “Song of Napalm” By Bruce Weigl. This poem is a very well written moving tale of a battle field scene in Vietnam. The feeling that I felt when reading this poem is sadness. The vivid imagery incorporated to describe the fire felt taking place here was amazing however at some points horrifying. The particular part of this poem that stuck out to me the most was in the fifth paragraph where Weigl describes the last effort to escape the burning napalm covering a young girl frantically trying to escape her inevitable death. This imagery made me sad because it really brought to light the horrors faced during times of war. Another part of this poem that sticks out to me is the way Weigl describes how he tried to deal with the sight of the girl burning form napalm

 

So I can keep on living,

So I can stay here beside you,

I try to imagine she runs down the road and wings   

Beat inside her until she rises   

Above the stinking jungle and her pain

Eases, and your pain, and mine.

 

(Fourth paragraph of “Napalm Song” By Bruce Weigl) In this paragraph he is trying to bring peace to his mind as well as peace to the burning girl by imaging the girl is going to be alright however as described in the fifth paragraph the lie as well as her life end quickly with the realization of the true horror of this battle scene.

 

A poem that stood out to me for its simplicity is the poem By Kevin C. Powers. The poem is a letter he wrote to his wife during a lull in fighting. The poem speaks out to me because it really shows the feelings of a soldier on the front lines who although does not like to kill fights for his country on the front line. He does his job to protect his country even if he is tired and longs to return home to his loved ones. A story of the life of a front line soldier can be found here  

Photo: http://itech.dickinson.edu/chemistry/?cat=106