You might want to check out the entire poem,
chaps. It runs to about 3 New Yorker pages and
manages to maintain that sort of tone. James Dickey
did something similar (though non-nuclear) in his
poem called "The Firebombing." His war, of course,
was the Korean "peace action."
Hal
Serving the tristate area.
Halvard Johnson
================
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http://www.hamiltonstone.org
On Aug 7, 2006, at 4:45 PM, Kenneth Wolman wrote:
> Patrick Mc Manus wrote:
>> Knocked out by this Patrick old P
>>
> Similarly so. I love the almost log-book tone, nothing in it
> either of blame or guilt, or too much self-congratulation. There
> are no victims on the ground in this abstract. Only in the final
> two lines do I read the terrible loneliness of the flight crew and
> need for comfort. Alcohol and God are as one.
>
> I worked with a man 21 years ago who'd been a bombardier on a B52
> over Cambodia and Vietnam. He seemed very matter-of-fact about his
> job. You got to the target area, dropped the payload from a
> dehumanizing height, and got the hell out. All he and the crew saw
> were the bright flower patterns of exploding bombs. It did not
> pay, he said, to think of what they signified.
>
> ken
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Poetryetc provides a venue for a dialogue relating to poetry
>> and
>> poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Halvard
>> Johnson
>> Sent: 07 August 2006 19:28
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: "New Dawn" an abstract
>>
>> 1 EXPLOSION: SEQUENCE AND SIMULTANEITY Greenwich Time 11:16 P.M.
>> August 5 1945... Hiroshima Time 6:16 P.M. " "... 2 GOODBYE TO
>> TINIAN Now that all the"unauthorized items"are cleared from the
>> bomber/... Colonel Tibbets, commander/... Addresses the crew,
>> "just don't/Screw it up..." 3 TAKEOFF: TINIAN ISLAND ...Position
>> taken... 4 MYSTIC NAME ...some name it"The Beast," and some...
>> "Little Boy." 5 WHEN ... 6:30 A.M. Japanese Time, last lap to
>> target... 6 IWO JIMA ...Advice bombing primary-i.e./Hiroshima...
>> 7 SELF AND NON-SELF... /8 DAWN... 9 THE APPROACH Speed 200 miles
>> per hour... /On time. Color/Of the world changes. /...like a
>> dream. 10 WHAT THAT IS The apocalyptic blaze... Bursts...
>> Hiroshima Time:8:16 A.M., August 6, 1945. 12 MANIC ATMOSPHERE... /
>> 13 TRIUMPHAL BEAUTY... 14 HOME "We made it!"... The mutual
>> salute. At last... 15 SLEEP Some men, no doubt, will, before
>> sleep, consider/One thought: I am alone. But some, /in the mercy
>> of God, or booze, do not Long stare at the dark ceiling.
>>
>> --Robert Penn Warren
>>
>> [Note: The above is an abstract of a poem called "New Dawn,"
>> first published in the New Yorker issue dated Nov. 14, 1983]
>>
>> Hal
>>
>> Serving the tristate area.
>>
>> Halvard Johnson
>> ================
>> [log in to unmask]
>> [log in to unmask]
>> http://home.earthlink.net/~halvard
>> http://entropyandme.blogspot.com
>> http://imageswithoutwords.blogspot.com
>> http://www.hamiltonstone.org
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> --------------------
> Ken Wolman kenwolman.com rainermaria.typepad.com
>
> "Let us stifle under the mud at the pond's edge
> and affirm that it is fitting
> and delicious to lose everything."--Donald Hall, "Affirmation"
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