1664: The Story | Kim Addonizio

[exceptindreams]

Warning: This poem tells of the cruelty of acts of war. (Also of other really important and gorgeously thought about/written things, but the description is strong enough that I almost wished I had had a warning, and I have never wished that before. If you want more like this though, see Carolyn Forché's "The Colonel

Comments

[versipellis]

Oh gods! Thank you for the warning :(

I love the poet's attempt to grapple with the horror of it and how s/he tries to do that - and the sense of that grappling in the poem.

[urbanjumbled]

I actually found this difficult to grasp. The writing hooked me but I'm not sure if I really understood what the poet is trying to convey. If anyone could shed some light it'd be great!!

[sleeplessecrets]

It felt to me like someone told her the story about the horror of the beheaded family and the idea of it, the shock of it, stayed with her even though it wasn't something she witnessed herself, it made it hard for her to go back to her life without feeling that...sense of chaotic distortion.

The world where soldiers nail the hands of a dead baby to it's own skull is the same world in which she lives & makes love...how can that be? She struggles with the contrast & possibly the guilt over the pleasures living; without being the direct victim of the terrible cruelty of whatever war this is referencing, it still colors her perception & experience.

That's what I took away from it anyway.