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On TV they are advertising a set of War DVD's at a bargain price, shouting "The Glory that is War!" Anthology of images, there we get the thousand ways to kill, concise précis of slaughter, how bizarre to mesh mangled flesh, bloody, yet somehow acceptable as a prize of battle, being of enemy, and afar! Life is cheap when like arcade vet the player zaps for final sacrifice as if ciphers. Glory's glee, vulgar tones of pleasure without regret from childhood. Electronic device teaches gory death, as if a stellar feat and for humanity, less humane. But Money makes all things right, and in sport like war it's an honor now, to die. |
Author notes
A very long history resides here.
Inspired by gG's protest.
Please tell me what you think
Comments
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It's quite sad that this is what has become of war considering it's a horrific and gruesome thing and like you said in the third last line, money does make all things right no matter how wrong they really are.
Once again you have so simply captured the truth and manipulated it to expose the horror underneath.
You really don't see many poems about war like this but you hit the nail on the head with 'our' truths of war. We haven't seen a real war like our grandparents or parents have so we don't understand all the horrible inclinations of it, we only read about it and there is only so much the human mind can imagine before it reachs it's limit.
This is a very bold perspective and I quite enjoyed reading about it. Keep up the good work. -
it was good
the only thing worse than war is not haveing something worth fighting for...or something like that, i forgot who said it
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Thank you dogboy
'''''''
In protest
of narrow
reply box...
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A View of the Virtual Abyss
Hi Terry. Now this is interesting. It has your trademark enjambments fed by an ABC rhyme and yet I feel there is a splintered sense of perspective at work here, almost like shrapnel flung through cyberspace.
The afterburn of these images underlines the perverseness in such a statement as "The Glory of War". An impossible concept to comprehend unless one is as you clearly surmise, steeped in
"... vulgar
tones of pleasure without regret."
Personally I do worry about the emotional and empathic development of my 11 year old son and his hankering for pc gaming. Though his interests lie far from the violent preferences of his peers the arcade mentality is prevalent in that craving to always be "entertained".
Anything requiring deeper contemplation becomes boring in a heartbeat.
Your poem puts me in mind of the gleeful whoops of US helicopter gunners slaughtering helpless Iraqi conscripts through night-vision cameras as they ran like fleeing rabbits caught in the glare of imminent death. They said then, it felt just like a game.
Thought provoking, Terry. And thank you for being susceptable to any minor inspiration I might provide to the heady brew already astir in your erudite mind!
Warmest (Spring is in the air!) RegGards
gG
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Thanks Simon, in four letter words (Narrow box)
,,,,
The size of this box tells me I do not belong here; no one else gets one. Diversionary device: edit opened it this time. What did I intend to say? It is a rocky path in the dark, forcing stumbles? That too.
Your reply. Which poem was it? See what I mean?
It isn't fair. I'll be back to add to this.
Terry
Continued On Notepad, to paste in on-the-run. My student arrives in 30 minutes, and there went the morning. He is learning long-division, D-M-S-B Divide, multiply, subtract, bring down, DraculaMustSuckBlood reminds him what to do.
For a lad who lost most of his hippocampus to the tumor surgery that saved his life, he is doing better than anyone expected, having labelled him "MR," mentally retarded.
OK, I am ready for him.
Now, all yours: A View of the Virtual Abyss. It is indeed. In the interest of "Shock and Awe" thousands in Baghdad died, incrementally in the years following. And then Saddam and his brothers were executed for war crimes. I fail to see the logic there, but then as someone whose childhood had only a Crystal set radio and the Great Depression, I was denied the "benefits" of today's affluence. You have described the profound effect on all who grew up enjoying the shoot-em-dead PC games. My own children had them, for Pacman was quickly replaced by more and more lifelike death. Three of my four children joined the army, the boys truncating their education, and with it, their potential in a much reduced future. Grandkids are wiser, one in university, at least two more, certainly planning to go. The nine-year-old and younger sister have no ambitions yet...
Gamers? Perhaps to a lesser extent than their peers. As a teacher, I saw distractibility in the classroom to a far greater extent than I did when I had my first classroom in 1950. It was a gradual deterioration in what used to be the gentleness of young children, their joy in discovery in "real life"-- Somehow, TV photos of a spider creating a web lacks the immediacy of "oh and ah" viewing the precision of its geometry!
Here he is! Must go!
Terry
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