Can't Give This War Away

Can't Give This War Away - 2007: Break Beneath a Bridge

An excerpt from the printed edition of "Can't Give This War Away: Three Iraqi Summers of Change and Conflict."

I am four days into the embed, and the camera stays on my lap; my legs stick straight out and my back makes an L straight up against the shaded concrete wall of a railroad bridge underpass; my armor’s ceramic plate props me up, giving some measure of muscular comfort.

The soldier to my right positions himself the same way. Two others stand on the opposite edge of the dirt road beneath the bridge. An Iraqi policeman squats in front of me.

Even in shade, the degrees of dry heat still feel uncountable. The camera stays on my lap because after 90 minutes and three miles of walking, I’m too weary to lift it. My eyes take in each moment. But I’ll need the camera. Each moment brings something new and without proof from the camera’s chronology, the heat might melt the memories away.

Can't Give This War Away - Poetry and War: An Introduction

This is the full introduction to "Can't Give This War Away: Three Iraqi Summers of Change and Conflict." Preview (and purchase) the whole book here.

Can't Give This War Away: Three Iraqi Summers of Change and Conflict

Poetry and War: An Introduction:

 

"Both have their moments. The intervals are the tough things." - Robert Frost

"Any idiot can face a crisis. It's this day-to-day living that wears you out." - Anton Chekov

New Hampshire poet Robert Frost’s quote compared his profession to baseball games - the dramatic moments need patience between long intervals. His observation - whether he’d appreciate it or not - applies to war and poetry equally as well.

The intervals are the tough things; the day-to-day living is what wears one out, as a soldier overseas and far from home. Not the moment; moments require action, and action needs training and good training took passion. Of course a soldier can face the moment. That’s why they’re there. But they can’t train for a war’s interval. They can fill it up - burn the latrine’s shit barrel, clean weapons, shave so they don’t get yelled at - but it’s all just time killing until what they’re really there to do finally comes along.