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RE: Two Poems: Battlefield Confession & Life
Interesting writes.
I could definitely feel that these poems were written while "in the moment."
I wonder what a poem about your time in Iraq would sound like in retrospect. Sight sees things differently than does hindsight. Your mind (or at least mine) zooms in on different things.
Quill
Naturally. I'm not sure what "in the moment" means in the context of a yearlong event. These definitely have a passion and pathos that would not be present some 13 years later. Perhaps sights sees things differently because hindsight is half blind. The human mind forgets things, almost as soon as it experiences them, and the longer in time it moves the less it remembers. In fact, memory is altered by events between then and now, so, of course, I would be writing different poems today. It's a waste of time to think on such matters, I believe.
@blockurator,
The mind filters out that, which for whatever reason, it concludes is unimportant to remember. I am often surprised, looking back, what my mind has decided to remember. Often, I can remember seemingly inconsequential events in great detail, while other things that ought to have been memorable, weren't particularly.
What I have noticed, however, is that my memories seem to be focused on things "pregnant with meaning" ... learning something unusual or that which sparked an unexpected insight. I find it is these things that most inspire me when writing poetry. I was curious if it worked the same way for you.
Moreover, the way I think about certain things, in terms of what they meant (and mean), has changed over time. Rights or wrongs. Justifications or excuses. War plumbs something very deep within us, reality stripped of its posturing and platitudes. Raw, fundamental truths. For me, there is something akin to spirituality about my recollections from that time.
Quill