Some of you are going to hate me for this ...
During the WW2 Blitz 32,000 civilians were killed and 87,000 were seriously injured. Two million houses (60 per cent of these in London) were destroyed.
In the series of mass raids to Hamburg, known as the Battle of Hamburg, in July-August 1943 about 40,000 people were killed and 125,000 injured
9/11 The revised death toll of 2,752 does not include the 10 hijackers who crashed jetliners from American Airlines and United Airlines into the towers. It does include the 127 other passengers and 20 crew members on the two flights.
On my family’s house the roof was patched.
I watched summer ants swarm from the cracks
that the Blitzkreig broke in our foundations.
In childhood nobody told me
truly
the other side of smiles in war; "Our Lads
courageous as they fly their bombers out."
In childhood nobody told me
truly
about the German city where my young
Grandmother lived with cousins.
No-one told
of fire raids on the old men, wives and children,
when Our Brave Lads sent death to fall
and fall again on ruins lit by flames.
~~~
I drove through lunchtime traffic and I mused
for twenty miles as on a radio play
till I heard truly; then on television
twin towers bloomed with black smoke and hopeless
leaflike forms that fell
and fell with joined hands.
~~~
America, they are small loss, compared
to the deaths gone by. Terror is nothing new.
London, Hamburg, Dresden, Hiroshima,
Nagasaki suffered a thousandfold
more than your fallen symbols of world trade.
Accept the grown-ups’ secret: man makes war.
|
I think...
Written by patterjack (1193 comments posted) 12th September 2007 |
... that a lot of people over-reacted to the Americans' personal outrage , that their own homeland should have been subject to what is a very nasty business, while as a nation they themselves devastated other countries .
Over-reaction pro and con . It is all part of mankind's race towards self destruction -- morally justified or not .
War is not a sacred mission ; nowhere is inviolate nowadays ; we of mankind are all monsters , grit in the cogs of the universe.
Your poem is more a moral statement , and I think you have damped down the emotional reaction in an attempt to be objective.
It lacks your usual power and is closer to prose .
patterjack
|
Written by Monkeymox (16 comments posted) 12th September 2007 |
Brave. Really, really brave.
A well written piece, I thought. As patterjack said, it is written from an objective point of view rather than an emotional one, although this does create a certain effect; there is a certain kind of cinicism to the poem, a look at the aggressive nature of man. I wouldn't say that 9/11 was a small loss, but as the title suggests, it certainally puts things into perspective.
I liked it, anyways! |
addendum
Written by patterjack (1193 comments posted) 12th September 2007 |
I do not wish to give the impression that 9/11 was in any way a good thing.
Like Donne , I ask not for whom the bell tolls .....
patterjack |
Written by andybyers (171 comments posted) 13th September 2007 |
| I think you're gutsy to say it, FP. I think that fact that we've let three thousand deaths be an excuse for the Western world to murder hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in the Middle East reveals something truly monstrous about us in particular, and, sadly, about human nature in general. |
Written by Phil (6713 comments posted) 13th September 2007 |
Firstly, so good to see you post on GW again. I've missed your work.
Brave or not, your piece contains truth and suggests more. It does lack the usual emotional aspect of your work, but the last line pulls some of that back. I remember Oli did a piece about a year ago (Twin Towers) on a similar subject. Sadly, he copped a lot of flack. Foreign policy makes people somewhat more thoughtful in their reactions to what was once a black and white issue to most.
Dreadful though it was, seen in context, particularly a modern context, the Twin Towers can seem like minor incident in humanity's race to the end.
I guess it did represent an awakening in the west that wealth and privelege didn't equal safety. No condoning going on here, just an observation.
Phil |
Written by ellipinnock (1753 comments posted) 14th September 2007 |
Hi Sue,
I liked most of this - thought it was very strong up until the end really.
hopeless
leaflike forms that fell
and fell with joined hands.
is just fantastic imagery - really liked that. The last stanza was a bit too much about telling rather than showing for me although I liked the last line. I guess the transition from being quite physically grounded and imagery orientated to a more philosophical musing tone didn't quite work for me.
E |
Written by fellpony (1608 comments posted) 14th September 2007 |
| I know this needs to simmer a bit longer ... but it's been there a long time already as I wrote a lot of it in messages to friends in America in 2001. Maybe some of it is not really a poem; or not yet, anyway. |
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