Response to Poetry of Witness
The two poems that really hit home for me were “Charlie Howard’s Descent” by Mark Doty and “Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting” by Kevin Powers. I have no idea why these poems affected me so strongly but after I read both of them I was overcome by their words and how the poet must have felt while writing them. For “Charlie Howard’s Descent” I was so captivated by the words and how I imagined the tone of the poem to be I re-read it three times out loud and then another time silently. I felt anger and sorrow at the events of the poem; I could imagine the life that had been so wrongfully taken. I thought of the bravery it would have taken for someone to write a piece like this and the bravery of Charlie Howard to live his life how he wanted to, no matter what people thought or did. I think what got me the most in the poem was the very last line, “…and blesses his killers/in the way that only the dead/can afford to forgive,” (Doty, 52-54). There is just so much emotion in that line alone that it is beautiful and painful at the same time.
In the second poem the simplicity of it just made it even more intense. There is no use of bug, descriptive words, just his surroundings and his feelings at the time. While reading this poem all I thought about was how my heart would break if I ever had to experience something like what the poem describes; either writing or receiving such a letter. I felt the paradox, or perhaps the miracle of having someone to truly love at the time of taking so many loved ones away from other. Again, the ending line of this poem gets me, the way another soldier describes war as, “us/making little pieces of metal/pass through each other,” (Powers, 10-12). Both poems speak of heartache, but in different ways. I can’t say which affects me more, neither, I suppose, but I know that after reading these poems I have a better grasp on real tragedy.
The two poems that really hit home for me were “Charlie Howard’s Descent” by Mark Doty and “Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting” by Kevin Powers. I have no idea why these poems affected me so strongly but after I read both of them I was overcome by their words and how the poet must have felt while writing them. For “Charlie Howard’s Descent” I was so captivated by the words and how I imagined the tone of the poem to be I re-read it three times out loud and then another time silently. I felt anger and sorrow at the events of the poem; I could imagine the life that had been so wrongfully taken. I thought of the bravery it would have taken for someone to write a piece like this and the bravery of Charlie Howard to live his life how he wanted to, no matter what people thought or did. I think what got me the most in the poem was the very last line, “…and blesses his killers/in the way that only the dead/can afford to forgive,” (Doty, 52-54). There is just so much emotion in that line alone that it is beautiful and painful at the same time.
In the second poem the simplicity of it just made it even more intense. There is no use of bug, descriptive words, just his surroundings and his feelings at the time. While reading this poem all I thought about was how my heart would break if I ever had to experience something like what the poem describes; either writing or receiving such a letter. I felt the paradox, or perhaps the miracle of having someone to truly love at the time of taking so many loved ones away from other. Again, the ending line of this poem gets me, the way another soldier describes war as, “us/making little pieces of metal/pass through each other,” (Powers, 10-12). Both poems speak of heartache, but in different ways. I can’t say which affects me more, neither, I suppose, but I know that after reading these poems I have a better grasp on real tragedy.
Here are links to both poems.
Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=182821
Charlie Howard's Descent:http://www.angelfire.com/ca4/strawberry/descent.html
Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=182821
Charlie Howard's Descent:http://www.angelfire.com/ca4/strawberry/descent.html
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