Response to "How to Tell a True War Story"

     I have no first hand war stories to relate. I was too young, just barely, to go to Viet Nam. Desert Storm happened after I left the Navy in 1986. I have, however, had the rare privilege of being in the company of close friends who have trusted me with painful, true tales from combat. This brings me to say, I have every respect for Mr. Tim O’Brien. Most people know that war is horrible. Because of the relationships I have had with veterans, I believe he writes these stories, not so much to tell us what we already know, but more as a way of softening the horrors he saw over there. It’s a little like blood-letting to cure a disease. Lines like, “ … how the sun seemed to gather around him and pick him up and lift him high into a tree … ” (O’Brien 80), are evidence of how we can soften a traumatic scene by changing it into something beautiful.

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     The letter Rat Kiley wrote to his friend’s sister, I’m certain, was worlds different from the those she had received from her brother. It must have been very confusing to her and, quite possibly, put her in the frame of mind that this fellow was not all there. The letter was for Rat. A way of relieving the pain in an attempt to make sense of his Lemon’s death.

     War brings out the best and the worst in men. War is not fair, neither is life. O’Brien tells us, “ … war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love” (76). War and combat and all the things that go on during a battle are things which cannot be understood by someone who has not been there. Even those who have, come away with this confusion about what was real and what was imagined. The woman in the audience O’Brien speaks about, well-meaning and all, needs to understand that men who have lived these stories they tell are incapable of “putting it all behind.” We can only hope for healing.

                                                        Works Cited

O’Brien, Tim. “How to Tell a True War Story.” The Things They Carried. Boston:

     Haughton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009. Print.

True? War Stories...

Responding to a Poem

     Over the years, I haven’t given poetry much time or thought. Recently however, I experienced an emotional connection with a variety of such literature contained in a list of poems of witness. Two of these writings struck me especially deeply: “The Colonel,” by Carolyn Forche and Nicole Cooley’s “Compendium of Lost Objects.” Each of these engaged me emotionally. Each one has touched me in a different spot.
     Forche starts right out involving the reader from the very first line, “what you have heard is true” (1). When I read that, I felt a sense of being part of the story; as an intent listener, but invited to interject nods and sighs of understanding. Somewhere during the progression of the tale, I began to feel a bit sorry for the Colonel. This man seemed to have been driven a little off center in the head. That subtle insanity that allows one to control their environment through fear and creates a distance between a man and his family. “His wife carried a tray of coffee and sugar. His/daughter filed her nails, his son went out for the/night” (Forche lines 2-4). They had a maid. What is his wife doing carrying a tray like a servant? His daughter has a nervous habit, and his son feels led to escape the home even though there are visitors this evening.


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     Nicole Cooley reminds me of the losses I've experienced in my personal life with her poem, “Compendium of Lost Objects.” At any moment in time, our lives can take a sharp turn. We can withstand the loss of childhood memorabilia and small, cool things such as “...the butterfly wing, the semiprecious stones,/the shard of mirror” (Cooley lines 1-2). Much different is the case when our entire community, livelihood and security are brought to complete waste, without warning, before our eyes. Her description of this devastating and life changing event reminds me of our frailty in this world.

     Both poems exemplify this human frailty in a different way. The witness in Nicole Cooley’s poem was a victim, through no fault of their own, of a natural disaster. The Colonel would seem to be victim to his own arrogance and pride.

Works Cited

Cooley, Nicole.  "Compendium of Lost Objects." The Country Between Us. 1978. Print

Forche, Carolyn.  "The Colonel." Breach. 2010. Print

    
Go to "The Modern Writer as Witness." A website by UNLV,
for more information about literature of witness.

The Necessity to Speak

In his essay, “The Necessity to Speak,” Sam Hamill presents us with familiar questions which have been asked by many great thinkers since the beginning of man. He goes to great lengths to demonstrate our plight here in this world of ours.



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I believe we could all become more involved in the lives of others but, from a spiritual stand point, I also have an understanding as to why we, as humans, act the way we do toward one another. Hamill talks about fear, knowledge, and wisdom in a way that brings me to the realization that his view point is very humanistic. “Knowledge is the loss of innocence,” is not a factual statement. The proper use of knowledge leads to wisdom and without it we would all still be hunting and gathering. His statement would carry a lot more weight with me if he had plainly said, “they fear the truth,” and left “knowledge” out of it. I applaud the emotion and outrage he exhibits in his writing, but I also take exception to his attack on our “armed forces.” Perhaps I see the necessity for the protection afforded by or men and women who put their lives on the line every day so that we can enjoy the freedoms we have in the “US of A.”

Hamill expresses the same feelings and pain we all have experienced in our lives; the same pain evident in “the poems of witness.” None, though, can console or offer a solution to the human condition. I am a realist. The day when all men and women on this planet come to one big kumbayah party where we all get along, there are no more wars, hunger, or tragic deaths or suffering, is the same day the human race will cease to exist.

A small offering of a solution can be found here.