He says, "Well you've already done the 'Ball Turret Gunner.'"
Me, "No I haven't."
Matt, "Then do that one."
Me, "Why that one, does it relate to anything we're up to?"
Matt, "No, but I understand it."
So Babe, this one is for you:
The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
Randall Jarrell
From my mother's sleep I fell into the State,
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.
Six miles from earth loosed from its dream of life,
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.
When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.
[1945]
Okay, so a ball turret is a rotating plexiglas sphere hanging from a bomber fuselage in which a man defended the plane by firing machine guns at enemy fighters.
And "black flak" is anti-aircraft fire.
This was written during WW2. Jarrell was in the US Army Air Force, and one can presume how much he saw and witnessed. I cannot find the statistic--I know it's out there--but the casualty rate of the ball turret gunners was really, really high.
I'm looking through Matt's notes in his old literature book from his undergraduate, and he has written by the first line in the poem that "[the ball turret is] like a mother's belly, being born into the 'machine.'"
................................
I think this poem makes us think of the sacrifice of men and women.
Me and Matt have checked out Ken Burns' The Civil War documentary. We are in the middle of it. Man, it has really sobered us to the reality of war. I know, I know, Matt has been part of war, and is training to become an officer in the Army. But today's war is so much different than yesteryear's war.
I have also just finished Augustus by Anthony Everitt. (Augustus is Rome's first emperor. Good read, by the way.) Wow. Thousands and thousands of men lost their lives in battles.
What the human race does to its self is astounding.
And know what Matt? This is quite a poem to pick and understand. I know I didn't get it the first time I read it. You're a deep dude, Dude.
3 comments:
Sweet poem dude. Deep, real deep.
Very cool.
I've been catching up on your blog tonight, and greatly enjoying that:) I just read the poem you had I think for September and just wanted to say thanks for sharing! It was kind of a slap in the face for me too. I was just reading a talk from last conference that said that just our striving to do what's right, not just our always doing what's right, is the best example for our children. Loved that. Then in the poem I loved, "For I'se still goin', honey, I'se still climbin', And life for me ain't been no crystal stair". Ya! I can teach my children all that I've learned from things I've been through, but I'm not done learning (and climbing) and that's one of the best examples I can give to my children. Anyway, just stuck out to me:) thanks!
Got to love historical poems like that. I haven't read it before, but I'll most likely use it whenever I start teaching. Thanks a ton for sharing it.
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