First and foremost, I want to say how much I really
enjoyed reading Brian Turner and Yusef Komunyakaa’s poetry. From reading their
poems back-to-back, the reader can sense a distinction between the two
wars—Vietnam and Iraq. Nonetheless, although the wars were set in completely
different time periods, Turner and Komunyakaa have had similar experiences.
The Iraq War is relatively different from Vietnam In
terms of technology and advanced weaponry, it is also an industrialized war.
The setting is evidently more different than Vietnam War. The war in Vietnam
was set in a jungle whereas the Iraq War is slightly more urban. In Komunyakaa’s poem, “Camouflaging the Chimera”, readers can
envision the jungles of Vietnam. He described how he and his comrades will hug
the bamboo and how they had branches on their helmets. In contrast, Turner’s
poem, “2000lbs” describes a suicide bombing taking place in a market square and
the reader can envision the dust piling up everything, the telephone line
breaking, and someone getting into a taxi. Just from reading these brief
descriptions, there is a distinction of where these two wars take place.
I really like the similarity in
Turner and Komunyakaa’s writing. I love how they reveal different snippets of
what is actually occurring on the scene. By way of illustration, in “The Hurt
Locker”, Turner talks about several things all at once but each snippet merges
into the same heartbreaking ending that if one opens the hurt locker,
devastation and chaos will be all-consuming. He talks about a twelve year-old
rolling a grenade and four men getting into a taxi. He does the same in
“2000lbs”. Komunyakaa does the same technique in “Facing It”. The speaker of
his poem is gazing at the Vietnam Memorial Wall and it reflecting back on his
time in Vietnam War and intertwining the past and present until it merges into
one. I believe they use this technique very vividly as it captures the reality
of what is going on. When something is playing out in front of you, you notice
everything and I like how they capture that—it reveals the mess of the
situation. All in all, I really enjoyed reading their poems. Reading them side
by side showed me that war is the same in the end; it is all just heartbreak
and grief. Turner and Komunyakaa turned those feelings into literary beauty.
I really like your comparison of Turner and Komenyakaa. Besides the landscape, the two poets really had very similar wars: the constant threat of random bombs, the fear of not knowing who was "good" and "bad". I especially like your discussion on intertwining past and present. It almost as if both Turner and Komenyakaa want to attempt to write how confusing war truly is. By intertwining past and present, the reader constantly finds themselves going back and re-reading lines and trying to figure out where they are.
ReplyDeleteThanks for pointing out the landscape differences. I didn't think of it until I read this, it is certainly a game-changer for battle. With Vietnam being more of a rural terrain certain things have to happen there. Like communication between the troops and how they are to move and figure out where they are. I'm sure it is much easier to get lost in Vietnam than it is to get lost in an Iraqi city. However the city also has its own challenges. Such as knowing the difference between civilian and combatant and the close quarters defiantly make it very nerve wracking trying to patrol around the urban landscape.
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