War Poetry

Back on February 25 - right after Russia attacked Ukraine - I attended an online poetry workshop, hosted by Pádraig Ó Tuama. It was called "Poetry Lab: Exploring Conflict Intelligence Through the Lens of a Single Poem," but on this occasion, Pádraig focused instead on war poetry, as a way to put language around powerlessness.

In my notes, I have four items listed regarding war poetry (which probably sounded more coherent coming from Pádraig, but this is what I have to offer):

1. A lament
2. Clear-eyed about death
3. Bears witness - raises up a small voice
4. Holds out hope for anthropological change

He shared three poems, which I've linked to here:

• We Lived Happily During the War, by Ilya Kaminsky, from his book Deaf Republic, published by Graywolf Press
• On Being Asked to Write A Poem Against The War In Vietnam, by Hayden Carruth
• Wild Flowers, by Ali Cobby Eckermann, from her book Love Dreaming and Other Poems, published by Vagabond Press

One of the participants observed that these three poems teach that we must speak up against war; that speaking up doesn't help; and that the earth will remember, regardless.

Kaminsky's poem circulated widely on social media, in the first days of the Ukraine war. A few lines:

And when they bombed other people’s houses, we

protested
but not enough, we opposed them but not

enough. 

Carruth's poem declares that writing poems about war doesn't change a thing:

but death went on and on
never looking aside

except now and then
with a furtive half-smile
to make sure I was noticing.

Finally, Eckermann's poem bluntly states:

Wildflowers will not grow
where the bone powder
lies

I think that all the poems speak truth, but I hope that someday Carruth will be wrong, that we will recognize the futility of war, that it solves nothing.

(I've been reading Proclaim Peace, by Patrick Q Mason and J David Pulsipher, and find it informing my thinking on this.)

Deer behaving peacefully