Tim O'Brien - On The Rainy River

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Tim O’Brien has some very interesting stories of war which I usually find to be quite boring. The story I chose to respond to is “On the Rainy River.” The reason I chose this story is because I feel if I was in the same situation as his, being drafted to a war that you see no reason for fighting in, I would have made the same decision to run. Although they don’t use the draft now-a-days, it is a scary thought. The fact that they could easily bring it back at any time and out of the blues draft as many people as they want is something I would find hard to cope with. I’ve never been too interested in enlisting in the army, air force, or marines. Not because I don’t want to protect our country, just because I feel there are so many greater things that I could accomplish in life other than killing people and putting myself at risk for being killed. I have a strong feeling though that if the United States were to try and bring back the draft it would not turn out well. There are so many people today opposed to going to war. There would most likely be multiple protests and possibly riots. Today’s society is a lot different than it was when Tim O’Brien was drafted to the war. I don’t think that people today would have to worry as much about embarrassment of opting out of a draft. I feel if Tim O’Brien was in the same predicament in today’s world, he would have made it to Canada and not worried as much about what people thought of him. However all in all I respect Tim O’Brien for the decision he made and feel that it was a brave decision that turn out to benefit him throughout his writings. 

I found this article on DRAFTING in today's world to be very interesting. Feel free to read if you'd like. :)

Responding To A Poem

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The two poems I chose from the poetry of witness folder are “Songs of Napalm”, by Bruce Weigl and “Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting”, by Kevin C. Powers. The Reason I chose these two poems were because they relate to each other in a way. Both poems have a background from people who were in the war. The First poem I read was Songs of Napalm which gave me a few mixed feelings. The beginning of the poem had me a bit lost, but as I got towards the end I had a bit of disgust in mind. You could not tell what the poem was about just reading the first few lines. The way Weigl described the brightness of the explosion in the line that stated, “The grass was never more blue in that light, more / Scarlet; beyond the pasture” (Weigl, Lines 10 and 11) was very breath-taking after I found out what the poem was talking about. I think this poem brings sadness to the reader because of its content, unlike the other poem I read.

            The poem Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting is similar to Songs of Napalm because the two authors are in the war, but Powers poem is a love letter which brings a completely different emotion to the reader. He has a strange way of expressing his feelings towards whoever he is writing to. He states in the first line, “I tell her I love her like not killing” (Powers, Line 1). I find this strange because most people would not use feelings of war to describe their love for someone. This poem did not create much of an emotion for me; I was more baffled than anything because of the references Powers uses. The title and content of the poem make it seem like a love letter but when the author uses statements like “I tell her in a letter that will stink,” (Powers, Line 5) it redirects my mind from the thoughts of a typical love letter. Both poems were great and had tons of imagery that really gave the appearance of what exactly it was they were seeing and going through.

Works Cited

Powers, Kevin C. "Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting by Kevin C. Powers : Poetry Magazine [poem/magazine] : Find Poems and Poets. Discover Poetry." The Poetry Foundation : Find Poems and Poets. Discover Poetry. Poetry Founddation, Feb. 2009. Web. 10 Feb. 2011. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=182821>.

Weigl, Bruce. "Poetry Foundation." The Poetry Foundation : Find Poems and Poets. Discover Poetry. Groove/Atlantic Inc., 1999. Web. 10 Feb. 2011. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/print.html?id=171470>.

After reading these two war poems I decided to look into more war poems. If anyone is interested, THIS site has many plenty of great poems that also contain lots of imagery and could be classified as poetry of witness.

Sam Hamill "The Necessity to Speak"

Sam Hamill has a very blunt perspective on domestic violence. He also seems to think that most people who are battered when young grow up to batter others. I’m not sure if his opinions are influenced from a personal experience or another cause. I don’t think I can completely agree because I personally have known people who were battered as a child and grew up to be the nicest people.  Hamill tends to repeat himself a lot throughout his writing and claims that a person who commits domestic violence will continue to which another part that I don’t completely agree on is. However, his suggestions on how to get peoples voice heard by poetry are an amazing idea. I agree with him 100% when he says that people are embarrassed by poetry and that men are taught not to show their feelings. Too many people dislike poetry for Hamill’s method to become successful. If more people could realize what good poetry could bring to anyone I think he might have a chance of getting people with problems the help they need. The fact that most men are destines to be tough is what I believe will keep this idea from affecting them. Women are different and can express themselves through poetry without fear of people judging them as harshly. Sam Hamill has a great start to something that could affect us all for the better whether it is through poetry or not. Domestic violence is a horrifying problem that many families face. If we don’t start trying to figure out better ways to reduce domestic violence, generations after ours are going to accept it more and more and think that it’s okay. Sam Hamill is very brave for standing up and putting the message out that all people are all affected by domestic violence and something needs to be done about it. 

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I thought this SITE had a lot of info on domestic violence for those who are interested in learning more about it and its negative effects on people.