Primo Levi's "Buna": A Reflection on Transformation

Surviving the Holocaust, Primo Levi wrote the poem ‘Buna’ as a means of self reflection on the transformation he experienced after his tragic time at Auschwitz. Levi faced what some consider the most horrific act committed by humanity, and he survived. However, he did not leave the death camp gates unscathed. He experienced an inner transformation which his poem ‘Buna’ reveals by painting an image of the horrors of Auschwitz and Levi’s metamorphosis from an excited youth to a war weathered adult through his scientific writing style and address to a rhetorical other and his past self. For Levi, “Buna” functioned as a tool of visualizing inner turmoil and as a means of drawing attention to social atrocity. 

According to Kelly Cefalu, a scholar on Holocaust history, Primo Levi was a successful man, and he had the world ahead of him before his capture and sentence to Auschwitz. His study of chemistry would have opened many opportunities for him. Primo Levi was born July 31, 1919 in Turin, Italy to a liberal Jewish family. He was bullied as a child, for he was small, intelligent and one of the few Jewish people to attend the Massimo d’Azeglio Royal Gymnasium(Cefalu). He finished primary school and went on to secondary school to study chemistry(Cefalu). In 1941, Levi graduated from the University of Turin in Italy and then pursued his doctorate thesis in chemistry, but because of the Manifesto of Race, the Italian race laws of that time, he had difficulty finding a position for his research(Primo Michele Levi). Luckily, he was approached by a fellow student of Turin University and could finish his graduate research by riding off the privileges of this other, non-jewish student, and thus obtain his doctorate. Unfortunately, the status of the Jewish people in Italy declined in 1943 when Benito Mussolini was installed as the leader by the Germans and Levi was forced to return home (Primo Michele Levi). 

Levi returned home to his family in Turin, who at that time were hiding in their holiday home in La Saccarello, outside of Turin. Levi then joined the Italian resistance movement, an organization consisting of untrained and unprepared Italian men whose goal was to resist Nazi progress. It was not long before he and the other men were captured and sent to the Nazi death camps, specifically Auschwitz(Cefalu). This Primo Levi is the one whom the latter half of his poem describes. This was an individual who was “a strong man,” who had a woman who “walked at your side,” who had a name. Peter Balakian, writer for The American Poetry Review, calls the pre-Auschwitz Levi lovestruck, and ambitious, but soon transformed  by his exposure to Auschwitz(Balakian). 

‘Buna’ stems from two words: Butadiene and Natrium, and the name of the camp(Cefalu). Both are chemical ingredients for synthetic rubber, the product of the lab in which Levi worked during his imprisonment at Auschwitz. This poem brings to mind images of the camp, and then it transitions to a section of address to a changed man, the man who walked with a woman by his side, a man who was confident. I interpret this individual to be Levi’s pre-Auschwitz self.  There exist three Primo Levis: the proud, promising pre-Holocaust Levi, the empty, tortured and captive Levi, and the haunted and guilty post-Holocaust Levi. ‘Buna’ connects those three facets of Levi by recognizing the way he once was, how the camp treated and changed him, and the response of his current self to meeting his old self. 

The style that Primo Levi implemented to write ‘Buna’ was quite interesting.  I think Levi saw life through the eyes of a chemist, and he used this perspective to write(Losey). What I know of chemistry helped me to see that Levi wrote ‘Buna’ much like a chemical reaction; he described the reactants, his former self and Auschwitz, the reaction, Auschwitz’s processes and the way it affected him, and the products, his retrospective current self.  

Levi also uses his characteristic style of address to develop an atmosphere of separation from the subject of the poem.  He continually uses the ambiguously beautiful ‘you.’ It can mean both, an individual or a group of individuals. In “Shema,” another of his poems, ‘you’ begins addressing many persons, but then it focuses down to the level of one person: “Or may your house crumble” and “Disease render you powerless.” ‘You functions similarly in ‘Buna.’ “You multitudes with dead faces” clearly means many groups of people suffering in the camps, but the shift to “You have broken what’s left of the courage within you./Colorless one, you were a strong man” expresses a shift to a singular ‘you’, which I believe is the Auschwitz Levi. This shift from a collective subject to a singular subject embodies a facet of ‘Buna’ that makes it an amazing poem. The poem starts by bringing the reader into a scene of many individuals, then it narrows the group down until it is the reader who is “so tired” that he can “no longer grieve.” Gil Anidjar, writer for Tikkun Magazine, says that this is a perfect technique for pulling the reader into a sense of emptiness and pain (Anidjar). 

Primo Levi’s “Buna” had multiple roles.  According to Anidjar, it served as a means of dealing with inner emotional turmoil(Anidjar). As mentioned earlier, Levi did not leave Auschwitz unmarred. His body was physically decrepit, but the emotional and mental strain struck him much deeper. The instances which led to Levi’s survival were lucky to say the least; he happened to be at a camp where a chemist was needed to help produce synthetic rubber, so he gained the luxury of working in a sheltered laboratory, helping him avoid more physically demanding and draining labor that many others experienced. Also, he contracted Scarlet Fever and was sent to the infirmary, which prevented him from going on the Death March. That allowed for his rescue by Russian forces when the camp was liberated in 1945. The fact that he survived when so many died left him with survivor’s guilt. Jay Losey states that, unsurprisingly, Levi also suffered from depression (Losey). A year later, he wrote ‘Buna.’ ‘Buna’ was a medium through which he could address the transformation he experienced. For him, it was a tool of healing, as can be seen from his move toward being advocate against inhumane action(Losey).

‘Buna’ further functioned as means of bringing social awareness to readers(Losey). As mentioned above, readers emerge into a scene of death and oppression, and eventually they reach the end of the poem where Levi questions what they have become. Unlike prose and other forms of writing, poetry reaches to the depths of the soul, awakening raw emotion. Levi used this to drag readers through the emotional pain that he felt during his time at Auschwitz. One who reads this poem walks away with a sense of what unchallenged monstrosity can do to individuals. 

Levi used his style of addressing a collective, yet personal, ‘you’ and his distinct “chemical reaction” type of writing to create ‘Buna.’ Through this poem, he sifted through his inner turmoil left to him by Auschwitz; he tried to make sense of what it did to him. He also used ‘Buna’ as a tool for social awareness by bringing the reader into a unique experience of group suffering and then focusing down to individual transformation when met with conflict. 

References

Anidjar, Gil. "Reluctant memory." Tikkun Jan.-Feb. 2006: 71+. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 24 Oct. 2011

Balakian, Peter. "Poetry in Hell: Primo Levi and Dante at Auschwitz." The American Poetry Review Jan.-Feb. 2008: 3+. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 24 Oct. 2011. 

Cefalu, Kelly. "Primo Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz: A story of what it really means to be human."University of South Carolina Beaufort History Department. University of South Carolina Beaufort, 14 March 2008. Web. 31 Oct 2011. 

Losey, Jay. "From savage elements: epiphany in Primo Levi's Holocaust writings."Journal of European Studies 24.93 (1994): 1+. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 24 Oct. 2011.7 >

"Primo Michele Levi." 2011. Biography.com 31 Oct 2011, 08:57

http://www.biography.com /people/primo-levi-9380562

A Dance Between Expression and Form

Trying to place a definition on poetry is much like trying to catch someone in a race who always seems to stay one step ahead of you. Right when you think you have the runner pinned down, he shoots beyond your grasp. Poetry is the same. Every time I think I have a concrete definition, I see some new poem or hear another’s perspective that opens a whole new array of possible definitions. At the beginning of the year I thought that poetry was a form of written expression that just did not fit into any other category. At this moment in time, however, I believe that poetry is type of expression that balances form and and creativity in such a way that it connects with the reader and works for the writer.

Coming into this class I had all of the presuppositions of an advanced placement English student. I thought poetry was the form of art that deals with the lofty imagery that says a lot about everything and even more about nothing in specific. In other words, poetry was not for me. However, the semester that I have spent in this class has taken my view of poetry and molded it into a entirely different perspective. I now appreciate poetry.

The way that a poet uses every word, line, period, comma, dash, rhyme, and rhythm is important in poetry. Each poem uses these structures and embellishments in a different way to accomplish the goal of the poet. Emily Dickinson is known for her interesting way of using punctuation. Dickinson often ends lines of poetry with a long dash, which often indicates a pause. Dickinson also used hymn meter in her poems paired with slant rhymes and other variable inflections unique to her style, to give an almost mysterious song like feel to her poems. Other poets rely on different types of form to meet their objective. Walt Whitman used long lined poems of free verse to describe the American way of life in the mid 1800s. As Dickinson and Whitman show, form is important to the overall function of their work, but their work is not defined by this form. I think of form as the backbone from which a poem is built. For example, when we had to write sonnets, I thought that the form would be limiting, but I found that the form helped my to organize my thoughts in a more powerful and emotive way. Form and structure, when balanced with emotion and expression, make a poem more expressive. 

Poetry draws on emotion and expression to compliment form and to connect with the reader. I consider a poet a good poet when I can feel what they are describing. Primo Levi wrote about his time in Auschwitz in his poem “Buna.” He described the way that his time transformed him from a once proud, ambitious adult to the world-weary, and emotional scarred man. By his sensual description of the camp and its conditions, I could imagine myself trudging through the mud through which he trudged. Brian Turner, in his book Here, Bullet, described the atrocities of the Iraq war and his experience there through vivid imagery. Turner’s poem “2000 lbs.” describes the event of a car bomb through the perspectives of seven different people present at the explosion. Each perspective provides a different raw emotion, ranging from longing of a lover to the nervousness of detonating a bomb. Turner makes the reader feel all of these. 

The use of emotion in poetry is not hindered by form, it is enhanced by it. According to Mary Oliver’s book The Rules of the Dance, line length is directly proportional to the amount of breath needed to speak that line, and depending on that amount the reader feels something different. If the line is short, the breath is short and concise, thus the poem moves quickly. However, if the line is long to the point of expending the last gasp of breath, the reader basks in that line, taking in everything that it has to offer. Rhyme provides a connection between lines, stanzas, or poems depending on how it is used. 

Peter Fallon called poetry a composition, and I completely agree. A poet must work at a poem until it conveys exactly what he or she desires. Not only does a poem need to express what the writer wants, it must also evoke a response from the audience. Carolyn Forche created an anthology of the poetry of witness in her book Against Forgetting. Her introduction to the text tells of the struggles of the poets against violence in the past one hundred years, and how many of them died during their respective struggles. The poets featured in her anthology successfully convey their situations through their poetry. They constructed their thoughts into a form that is both accessible and relatable to readers. 

I also define poetry by what it does for the poet. Kate’s individual poetry project author, Anne Sexton, was prescribed poetry by her doctor to help deal with her depression. It successful kept her from suicide for fifteens some years, but eventually her mental illness was too overpowering.  After taking this class, I see how poetry can be a prescription. For example, after listening to the convocation about the Invisible Children in Africa, I was filled with concern for humanity’s role in social justice, so I wrote a poem to sort my thoughts:

Shame

Shame is knowing

through action

or not-

the bodies we're reaping

I modeled this poem after Emily Dickinson’s style of writing definitions in short, concise poems. It helped me to express my feelings on how our actions, are always affecting others, even when we do not realize it. 

Poetry goes beyond the poet to function in the world by filling the social space. Poets have used poetry to raise awareness for social issues, to pinpoint the atrocities of humanity, and even to bring readers into their plights. The book Against Forgetting is filled with poetry of witness. The poems fill all of the roles that I just mentioned. Specifically, Primo Levi wrote “Buna” and brought readers into Auschwitz and into the transformative situation into which it brought him. 

Before this class, my definition of poetry was limited. I had no real experience with poetry, so I did not understand how powerful of a tool it can be. Now, however, I feel confident in picking up a modern book of poetry and understanding the message it has, or at least forming my own understanding. The art of poetry uses both expression and form to work for the reader and the poet. 

From Pain to Poetry

From Pain to Poetry

Brian Turner penned the majority of his poems in Here, Bullet, his first of two books, after days on the battlefield, and with these poems of experience and witness to the pain and tragedy that war is, he provides readers with perspectives of his time spent in Iraq. Here, Bullet is in four sections, each expressing a different facet of the war in Iraq. Throughout the book, Turner uses strong war imagery, individuality, and perspective to provide a somber understanding of the conflict. 

Part one introduces the conflict, the Iraq war, the location, Iraq, and the people involved, the soldiers and Iraqi people. His poetry uses imagery to create an understanding of the context of the book. “Hwy 1”(2005) mentions locations such as: Najaf, Kirkuk, Mosul, Kanni al Saad, and the Euphrates. Upon seeing these names, the reader envisions the Middle East, specifically Iraq. In “The Al Harishma Weapons Market”(2005), Akbar “wraps an AK-47 in cloth” in the presence of his child. For him, weapons sales are the means by which he can put food on his table.  The Americans are portrayed in “The Baghdad Zoo”(2005) as “gunner[s]” hunting “Iraqi northern brown bear[s].” The Iraqi people and the American soldiers are contrasted, exposing different viewpoints that individuals in the war hold. “The Hurt Locker”(2005) describes the land as having “Nothing but hurt left here. / Nothing but bullets and pain.” Turner captured the perspective of both the conscientious soldier and innocent civilian with that poem, bringing both the Iraqi and American into the book. 

In part two, Turner explores how the Iraq war affected people. The personal depth in which Turner writes is even further demonstrated by the locations given at the tops of many poems. The reader sees these and realizes that Turner wrote from real experience at a real place. A man featured in “Kirkuk Oilfield, 1927”(2005) says “We live on the roof of Hell,” referring to living on the land ruled by the oil industry. Ahmed listens to this man tell him that “he’s seen the black river / wash through the flood of oil as if the drillers had struck a vein / deep in the skull of God.” The individuality of Turner’s poems makes the descriptive imagery that he uses more emotive. “Autopsy”(2005) exemplifies the individuality that Turner uses throughout this section of the book. The mortician Sergeant Garza, from Missouri, performs an autopsy on a man whose first kiss is described in detail. The description of such a private and personal event builds a connection between the reader and the subjects of the poem.

Turner also explores the remorse of the individual and the physical effects of war in part two. The persona in “For Vultures: a Dystopia”(2005) offers his “remorse of flesh” to the birds circling above. He hopes that his “gift of heat and steam” would suffice to exonerate for “every plume / of smoke, every fallen soldier, / [and] every woman’s / for the ones they love.” “Dreams from the Malaria Pills (Barefoot) and (Bosch)”(2005) are two poems in this section which demonstrate the physical effects of war to the reader. The persona in “Barefoot” coughs up “shrapnel, jagged and rough,” and in “Bosch” he feels as if he has experienced the open flames of a flamethrower. The visions of mutilated and burt flesh provide a too real image of what war is.

Turner then contrasts modern humanity with humanity of early first millennia in part three. The first poem in this section, “Alhazen of Barsa”(2005), juxtaposes the people of the early first millennium with modern humanity. The old world did not question “whether light travels in a straight line, / or what governs the laws of refraction,” but the new world does. Turner says that he would “rather ask about the light within us,” like the old world. A soldier in “Observation Post #798”(2005) looks through his binoculars during a time of relative calm and sees a woman smoking a cigarette and waving her hair in the air. Seeing this sparks his memory of being home with his own wife, some “7,600 miles / away.” This poem gives a taste of what a modern man might feel during war, which is similar to the emotional and introspective sides of ancient humanity.

Section number four reflects on the lessons that society has not learned.  “Mihrab”(2005) explores the imagery associated with the Garden of Eden. The story of the Garden of Eden was the first time that man had made a moral mistake. Turner has this at the beginning of this section to introduce the concept of missed lessons. Throughout history, humanity has continually commited violence against each other. Nation has hurt nation in the name of furthering peace or prosperity. Turner compares this past with what is occuring today. We still have not learned that what our nations are doing is just another portion of a greater cycle of violence. Turner’s poem “Gilgamesh, in Fossil Relief”(2005) says: “History is a cloud mirror made of dirt / and bone and ruin. And Love? Loss?” We should make note of history and learn from our forefathers’ mistakes. Then, at the end of the poem, Turner warns that “each age must learn,” further insisting that we should take note and learn. 

Turner’s mentioning of Biblical locations brings to mind the morality which seems to be absent from the Iraq war. The Iraq war is filled with tragedy and immorality. American soldiers had sexually abused and degraded Iraqi prisoners, dehumanizing them. The placement of Biblical references in a book about the violence of war questions the very nature of the war. How can a nation which embraces God, even on its currency, commit such abhorrent acts? Brian Turner got first hand experience with the atrocities of Iraq and the moral obligation to question what was happening when he spent a year serving in 2003.

Brian Turner gave individuals a voice and conveyed their perspective of the Iraq war with his poetry in Here, Bullet. His poems often use gruesome imagery, but by incorporating this with individuality he provides a real image of what war is and how it affects people. 

Bibliography

Turner, Brian. Here, Bullet. Farmington: Alice James Books, 2005. Print.

Perspectives through Poetry

Brian Turner organized Here, Bullet  into four separate sections. Each section emphasizes an aspect of war and humanity, which Turner’s poem “2000 lbs.” demonstrates. The book as a whole carries Brian Turner’s perspective and experience with the Iraq war. 

Part one introduces the conflict, the Iraq war, the location, Iraq, and the people involved, the soldiers and Iraqi people. His poetry provides the imagery for an understanding of the context of the book. “Hwy 1” mentions locations such as: Najaf, Kirkuk, Mosul, Kanni al Saad, and the Euphrates. Upon seeing these names, the reader envisions the Middle East, specifically Iraq. In “The Al Harishma Weapons Market,” Akbar “wraps an AK-47 in cloth” in the presence of his child. For him, weapons sales are the means by which he can put food on his table.  The Americans are portrayed in “The Baghdad Zoo” as “gunner[s]” hunting “Iraqi northern brown bear[s].” The Iraqi people and the American soldiers are contrasted, exposing different viewpoints that individuals in the war hold. “The Hurt Locker” describes the land as having “Nothing but hurt left here. / Nothing but bullets and pain.” Turner captured the perspective of both the conscientious soldier and innocent civilian with that poem. The namesake of the book, “Here, Bullet,” offers an individual’s “bone and gristle and flesh” to a bullet. 

In part two, Turner explores how the Iraq war affected people. The personal depth in which Turner writes is even further demonstrated by the locations given at the tops of many poems. The reader sees these and realizes that Turner wrote from real experience at a real place. A man featured in “Kirkuk Oilfield, 1927” says “We live on the roof of Hell,” referring to living on the land ruled by the oil industry. Ahmed listens to this man tell him that “he’s seen the black river / wash through the flood of oil as if the drillers had struck a vein / deep in the skull of God.” The individuality of Turner’s poems makes the descriptive imagery that he uses more emotive. “Autopsy” exemplifies the individuality that Turner uses throughout this section of the book. The mortician Sergeant Garza, from Missouri, performs an autopsy on a man whose first kiss is mentioned. 

Turner also explores the remorse of the individual and the physical effects of war in part two. The persona in “For Vultures: a Dystopia” offers his “remorse of flesh” to the birds circling above. He hopes that his “gift of heat and steam” would suffice to exonerate for “every plume / of smoke, every fallen soldier, / [and] every woman’s / for the ones they love.” “Dreams from the Malaria Pills (Barefoot) and (Bosch)” are two poems in this section which demonstrate the physical effects of war to the reader. The persona in “Barefoot” coughs up “shrapnel, jagged and rough,” and in “Bosch” he feels as if he has experienced the open flames of a flamethrower. 

Turner then contrasts humanity with ancient humanity in part three. The first poem in this section, “Alhazen of Barsa,” juxtaposes the ancient humanity of the early first millennium with modern humanity. The old world did not question “whether light travels in a straight line, / or what governs the laws of refraction,” but the new world does. Turner says that he would “rather ask about the light within us,” like the old world. A soldier in “Observation Post #798” looks through his binoculars during a time of relative calm and sees a woman smoking a cigarrette and waving her hair in the air. Seeing this sparks his memory of being home with his own wife, some “7,600 miles / away.”

Section four reflects on the lessons that society has not learned.  “Mihrab” explores the imagery associated with the Garden of Eden. The story of the Garden of Eden was the first time that man had made a moral mistake. Turner has this at the beginning of this section to introduce the concept of missed lessons. Turner’s poem “Gilgamesh, in Fossil Relief” says: “History is a cloud mirror made of dirt / and bone and ruin. And Love? Loss?” Then, at the end of the poem, Turner warns that “each age must learn.” Turner’s mentioning of Biblical locations brings to mind the morality which seems to be absent from Iraq.

The overall structure of the book flows from an identification of where the conflict is, and who the people are, to how it affects these people, as well as focusing on humanity, and ends with missed lessons. 

The poem “2000 Lbs.” is the longest in the book, and it focuses on one event, a car bombing. However, it shows the event through the perspective of seven people in eight stanzas, thus perfectly exemplifying the structure of the book as a whole. A close reading of the poem will give readers a better understanding of one even through the perspective of seven people.

The first stanza introduces the man who detonates the explosives. His “thumb [is] trembling over the button,” and his “adrenaline has pushed [the radio soundtrack] into silence, replacing it with a heartbeat.” The stanza is only six lines long, and the lines themselves are shorter than most throughout the rest of the poem. This fast piece of the poem may signify the subjects of discomfort and nervousness. 

The second stanza focuses on an individual named Sefwan, who “lights a Miami, [and] draws in the smoke” as he waits in his taxi. While waiting, he remembers “lifting / pitchforks of grain high in the air,” which reminds him of his love of many decades ago, Shatha. During these memories, shrapnel “traveling at the speed of sound to open him up / in blood and shock,” kills Sefwan. Sefwan died remembering his love. Such a violent act juxtaposed to a warm, homey and loving memory make the perspective of Sefwan much more emotive. 

Sergeant Ledouix of the National Guard is the focus of the third stanza. The reader joins his story right after the explosion. His eardrums have ruptured and shrapnel punctured his ribcage, hastily draining his blood. He knows that he will die within a few minutes, which he does. However, he “finds himself surrounded by a strange / beauty, the shine of light on the broken, / a woman’s hand touching his face.” This and the later use of wedding ring imagery allude to his late wife. Leodouix’s perspective is that of a man who has committed violence in his life, but is finally laid to peaceful rest at the hands of an explosion. One might guess that a man who led men to kill other men deserved a death of pain and gore, but Turner would have it otherwise; Turner has this man die in the memory of his wife, much like Sefwan dies in the second stanza. Turner shows that all people die equally. Some may see this as an injustice, but in reality it is an equalizer, as all men pass on. 

The fourth stanza is from the perspective of Rasheed, a man who was riding his bike near a shop when the blast occurred and his observation of manikins and the relative humanity to which he compared it. He survived uninjured, but he witnessed the “blast tearing into manikins,” who appeared as husband and wife who could never touch each other. This outsider viewpoint may stand for the bystanders who watch conflict but do not do anything about it. 

The fifth stanza focuses on another military man, Leutinant Jackson, who embodies the innocent man who does violent acts for some unknown reason. Jackson was blowing bubbles outside of a Humvee window when the bomb blew, causing him to lose both of his hands. He then “blacks out / from blood loss and shock, with no one there to bandage / the wounds that would carry him home.” Jackson may symbolize the gentle man who commits acts of violence for some deeper reason. 

The sixth stanza was the most emotive of the poem; it tells of old woman who “cradles her grandson, / whispering, rocking him on her knees.” The poem states that if the lady was asked forty years ago if she could see her self in this current position she would say: “To have your heart broken one last time / before dying, to kiss a child given sight / of a life he could never live? It’s impossible, / this isn’t the way we die.” This is the embodiment of the destruction of the innocent. The old lady was innocent, but the young child was beyond third party innocent, he held the innocent of one who does not know what evil is. 

The seventh stanza focuses back on the detonator. However, instead of focusing on his personal traits or how he is in the moment, it focuses on his overwhelming presence in the scene. It says that “he is everywhere”, his body exploded from the epicenter. The man is omniscient, touching all the people in the vicinity of the explosion. The detonator’s act touches more than those in the circle. It touches the lives of those connected to the people who were present in the explosion. This represents the vast effects that an act of violence can have on the world. 

The last stanza reflects on the scene as a whole. A telephone line is broken and swings back and forth “crackling” with active electricity. The people “wander confused amongst one another.” The people though, are learning each others’ names and consoling each other. This last stanza represents hope. In the face of violence, humanity can persist and endure until the violence is over and it can help rebuild. 

This poem functions much like the book as a whole. It uses perspective to create a better understanding of an event. In this poem’s case, a car bomb is extrapolated, but in the case of the book as a whole, the Iraq war is explored. 

"Curfew": Juxtaposition of Peace and War

Curfew Paraphrase

Bats take to the air once the sun sleeps,

and snakes fill the ponds behind 

crumbled buildings. the mosques’ doors

open for their initiates, inviting the night stars light 

as a mantra.

This day the police caught rays instead of men,

and children put clothes out to dry with

their mothers, while warm wind

embraced them. 

The air did not crack nor the the ground shake, calm. 

Sgt. Gutierrez didn’t hold a dying man with

pieces of cerebrum held tight in hand; today doves

flew from the Tigris with peace, not by fright. 

Brian Turner’s Here, Bullet was the child of his experience in Iraq as a platoon leader. Many times he would write a poem after a raid or by flashlight in his barracks after a day on the field. In “Curfew,” Turner does not turn away from gore. Instead, he embraces it with strong imagery that allows the reader to almost feel the brains of a shot friend. Turner does not sugar coat the atrocities of war, but he presents war as it is. He uses symbolism throughout as a subtle reminder of what humanity is capable of doing, on extremes of peace and violence. “Curfew,” juxtaposes peace and violence, and by doing so, it instills in the reader an understanding of war’s reality.

“Curfew” describes a scene in a war zone that is lit by the warm rays of sunlight and the calming tendrils of moonlight, not pyres of war. However, violence is not absent from the poem. In its three stanzas, “Curfew” juxtaposes a serene scene with the memory of death and violence to develop a spectrum of emotion. The first stanza speaks of nature and natural things in a peaceful tone: “bats fly,” “water snakes glide,” and “moonlight” is “prayer.” In the following stanza “policemen sunbathed on traffic islands” and “children helped their mothers / string clothes to the line” while “a slight breeze [was] filling them with heat.” This furthers the imagery of the ideal, homey scene, but this does not last. The final stanza speaks of what is not happening today. Sergeant Gutierrez is not holding an injured man who was grasping chunks from his friends’ brain. The introduction of this traumatic image shows how even on a peaceful day, the memory of war and violence persists.

Throughout Here, Bullet Turner presents violence and gore in their rawest forms, just as he does in “Curfew.” For example, his poem “Autopsy” details the initial incisions that the coroner makes when performing an autopsy on a downed soldier. Violence and gore are perhaps the best way to describe war, for they are its most common products. Many times war is portrayed as protecting those at the homeland or preventing further violence from happening, an necessary and honorable action, and those committing the acts are brought to the status of heroes. Turner, however, presents the facts as they are; people lose lives, and body parts of victims are often strewn on the streets. Too often have sergeants, captains, and colonels held their men dying in their arms, as in the last stanza of “Curfew.” 

What makes this poem beautiful and a poem of hope is the symbolism which it uses. “Curfew” establishes a scene of peace with descriptive details and imagery, but it goes even further with the symbolism used throughout. The police bathing in the sun stands for a time when such men are no longer needed in the world, for everyone will live at peace with each other. White birds often stand for doves, a commonly known symbol for peace, which it may stand for in this poem. Right after the image of Sergeant Gutierrez holding a dying man is mentioned, Turner says that “instead, white birds rose from the Tigris.” The Tigris pushes the idea of peace symbolism to the state of an ideal: the Garden of Eden. It is believed by many that the Garden of Eden existed between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in present day Iraq. By mentioning the Tigris along with the white birds Turner establishes his belief that men can someday reclaim that peaceful state.

Brian Turner’s “Curfew” holds no rhyme or consistent meter. The only formal element which I could find is the poem’s three stanza structure with a quintain at the beginning and the end with a quatrain stuck in the middle. The longer quintain forces the reader to stay on the subject portrayed slightly longer than stanzas of shorter length. Turner uses this to make the reader linger on the peace imagery for awhile, soaking it up. The middle quatrain further saturates the reader in peace, but also transitions the reader to the last quintain where the violent images fester. 

Turner uses imagery, symbolism, and stanza length in “Curfew” to give the reader an idealized image of peace juxtaposed with a very real image of the atrocities of war. Turner’s experience with was is well articulated through his poetry, and “Curfew” is a prime example of this.

Who is Brian Turner?

Brian Turner is first known as an American poet, but if one is familiar with his poetry, one also knows of his career as a soldier, for both are intertwined. Brian Turner spent seven years in the United States Army, and one can clearly see how this experience has affected his career as a poet. Before his time in the Army, Turner received his Bachelor of Arts, his Master of Arts, and his Master of Fine Arts(Contemporary Authors Online). 

Turner’s parents raised him in Fresno, California and then in Madera county, California. After high school, he attended Fresno Community College. Eventually, he transferred to Fresno State where he received his BA and MA. Soon after, he received his MFA from the University of Oregon(Contemporary Authors Online). 

One could call Turner well cultured to the world. He used his degrees to teach English in South Korea for over one year, after he received his MFA. THen he traveled to Russia, Japan, and the United Arab Emirates. The combination of his liberal degrees and traveling gave him a different perspective on life compared to most people. He was able to transform the situations that he saw into poetry.

Turner spent time in the United States Army for seven years. He went to Bosnia-Herzegovina from 1999 until 2000. There he worked with the 10th Mountain Division. In November of 2003 he led an infantry team in Iraq with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. His experiences with war are what shaped his poetry. In his National Public Radio interview, he said that he would often write his poetry right after he experienced the inspiration on the battle field. Many times he would write by the light of his cloaked flashlight in the barracks, careful not to wake the other men. He penned his poem “Eulogy” the same day that one of his fellow soldiers committed suicide(National Public Radio). 

While he was deployed, he kept his work a secret. His fellow soldiers knew he was working on a book, but as to what kind of book he was writing, they were in the dark. He did not want them to think that he was writing poetry about flowers and rainbows, for they may have thought less of him or lessened the amount of respect that they held for him(National Public Radio). 

Turner’s poetry works to paint a picture of what war truly is to the public. He captured the bloody reality of combat zones in many of his poems, and the picture created is anything but pleasant. Gore, violence, and death lace his poetry, but the fact that it is a stark reality makes it important to read. Society should be aware of the workings of the world, and Turner’s poetry provides a means of acquiring that image of truth. 

Turner’s book, “Here, Bullet,” is a reflection of his time spent in Iraq. It reflects on the variability of the zone to change from moment to moment, the death that surrounds wherever the armies were, and the emotions that the violence awakens in those seeing it. The book is named after a poem of the same title. In the poem “Here, Bullet,” a soldier, presumably Turner, tells a bullet that it might as well finish its job and he offers his body to the piece of metal. He does this knowing that such an act would land on his tongue and spill words to the world(National Public Radio). 

Turner’s experience with war forever shaped his poetry. It is filled with images of violent acts and death, but it is not immoral or awful poetry. It is merely the truth. 

Works Cited:

"Brian Turner." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 15 Nov. 2011.

"Iraq Soldier Describes War in Poetry." National Public Radio. N.p., 06 Jan 2006. web. 15 Nov 2011.

Bibliography:

Here, Bullet (2005)

Phantom Noise (2010)

Here, Bullet

Brian Turner details his journey through the Afghan and Iraq wars in his book Here, Bullet. Each page is filled with a vivid account of scene that Turner himself experienced. Having earned his BA, MA, and MFA, he went into the US Army with a different perspective than most. His experiences gave him the inspiration to write poems, many by flashlight at night after a day of combat. I will examine the role of this book, as well focus on a few selected poems.