Here, Bullet
Adding his voice to the current debate about the US occupation of Iraq, in poems written in the tradition of such poets as Wilfred Owen, Yusef Komunyakaa (Dien Cai Dau), Bruce Weigl (Song of Napalm) and Alice James’ own Doug Anderson (The Moon Reflected Fire), Iraqi war veteran Brian Turner writes power-fully affecting poetry of witness, exceptional for its beauty, honesty, and skill. Based on Turner’s yearlong tour in Iraq as an infantry team leader, the poems offer gracefully rendered,...
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A first-person account of the Iraq War by a solider-poet, winner of the 2005 Beatrice Hawley Award.Publishers WeeklyThe verse in this book is not good, but it is, in a cultural moment that includes Cindy Sheehan, timely. Turner served seven years in the U.S. Army, including deployment to Bosnia-Herzegovina with the 10th Mountain Division, and a year spent as an infantry team leader with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 2nd Infantry Division in Iraq. He, begins, after a prefatory poem ("This is a language made of blood./ It is made of sand, and time. To be spoken, it must be earned"), with poems whose titles precisely describe their contents: the nightmarish dispersal of "The Baghdad Zoo," the infamous "Hwy 1" ("the Highway of Death"), "The Al-Harishma Weapons Market," "Body Bags," "Najaf, 1820," "Dreams from the Malaria Pills," "Katyusha Rockets," "Observation Post #798," "2000 lbs." (in one bomb)-along with medevacs, translators, civilians and much more. Turner earned an M.F.A. from the University of Oregon before joining the army. His work is straightforward and direct. It highlights the violence and death of the war in a manner little seen elsewhere. (Nov. 1) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Here, Bullet\ \ By Brian Turner \ Alice James Books\ Copyright © 2005 Brian Turner\ All right reserved.\ ISBN: 9781882295555 \ \ \ Here, Bullet\ If a body is what you want,\ then here is bone and gristle and flesh.\ Here is the clavicle-snapped wish,\ the aorta’s opened valves, that leap\ thought makes at the synaptic gap.\ Here is the adrenaline rush you crave,\ that inexorable flight, that insane puncture\ into heat and blood. And I dare you to finish\ what you’ve started. Because here, Bullet,\ here is where I complete the word you bring\ hissing through the air, here is where I moan\ the barrel’s cold esophagus, triggering\ my tongue’s explosives for the rifling I have\ inside of me, each twist of the round\ spun deeper, because here, Bullet,\ here is where the world ends, every time.\ \ \ \ Continues... \ \ \ \ Excerpted from Here, Bullet by Brian Turner Copyright © 2005 by Brian Turner. Excerpted by permission.\ All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.\ Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site. \ \
A Soldier's Arabic1IThe Baghdad Zoo5Hwy 16In the Leupold Scope7The Al Harishma Weapons Market8What Every Soldier Should Know9The Hurt Locker11Observation Post #7112Here, Bullet13Body Bags14AB Negative (The Surgeon's Poem)15Two Stories Down17Ashbah18Into the Elephant Grass19Eulogy20IIKirkuk Oilfield, 192723Trowel24Where the Telemetries End25Autopsy26Repatriation Day27Najaf, 182028For Vultures: A Dystopia2916 Iraqi Policemen30Dreams from the Malaria Pills (Barefoot)31Katyusha Rockets32R&R33Dreams from the Malaria Pills (Bosch)34How Bright It Is35IIIAlhazen of Basra39Easel40Observation Post #798412000 lbs.42Dreams from the Malaria Pills (Turner)46Curfew47IVMihrab51Milh52Gilgamesh, in Fossil Relief53Tigris River Blues54Ferris Wheel55Sadiq56Jameel57Last Night's Dream58Cole's Guitar599-Line Medevac61Night in Blue64Caravan65To Sand66Notes69
\ Publishers WeeklyThe verse in this book is not good, but it is, in a cultural moment that includes Cindy Sheehan, timely. Turner served seven years in the U.S. Army, including deployment to Bosnia-Herzegovina with the 10th Mountain Division, and a year spent as an infantry team leader with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 2nd Infantry Division in Iraq. He, begins, after a prefatory poem ("This is a language made of blood./ It is made of sand, and time. To be spoken, it must be earned"), with poems whose titles precisely describe their contents: the nightmarish dispersal of "The Baghdad Zoo," the infamous "Hwy 1" ("the Highway of Death"), "The Al-Harishma Weapons Market," "Body Bags," "Najaf, 1820," "Dreams from the Malaria Pills," "Katyusha Rockets," "Observation Post #798," "2000 lbs." (in one bomb)-along with medevacs, translators, civilians and much more. Turner earned an M.F.A. from the University of Oregon before joining the army. His work is straightforward and direct. It highlights the violence and death of the war in a manner little seen elsewhere. (Nov. 1) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.\ \ \ \ \ Library JournalThe challenge Iraq war veteran Turner faced in writing this first collection was how to write beautiful poetry on the grim realities of war, about which there is nothing poetic. He aims to achieve his goal through simple description; the horror and the bloodiness of the war compel him to rely extensively on documenting its events, and his poems surrender to the power of narrative at the expense of the density and allusive imagery of poetry. Throughout, Turner attempts to capture the extreme experience of war by depicting the feelings it generates: the sense of loss, hatred, humiliation, love, uncertainty, and dreamy longing for a normal life among others. Symbols from Iraqi culture, such as Quranic verses, historical figures, and Arabic words, are cleverly employed throughout to enhance the effectiveness of the verse. The poems are strongest when Turner hints at and suggests functions that are vital to poetic language: "Cranes roost atop power lines in enormous/ bowl-shaped nests of sticks and twigs/and when a sergeant shoots one from the highway/ it pauses, as if amazed that death has found it/ here, at 7 a.m. on such a beautiful morning." Recommended for large public libraries.-Sadiq Alkoriji, Tomball Coll. & Community Lib., Harris Cty., TX Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.\ \
