The BlueIris Semi-Nightly Poetry Break, 4/29/08

[BlueIris]

"The Valley"

Only a helmet but the helmet
swells into a man
an old rifle but when I yawn the rifle
wrests into a man
and I say to the driver, watch...
and a pine tree
splits crown to root and out
walks a man
and when I turn my head a copse
throws down its branches and sighs and
walks as one man
and in every ditch the weed parts and
christens a man
and I say to the fellas, be ready...
and the face of the crocus
is the face of a man
and the arch of the April grass
is the back of a man
and one more and one more
and I say, do not move quickly, do not slow down...
every mile
more pebbles
shatter into men
burnt timbers and cowsheds
re-ignite into men
splintered fence-posts
shard into men
and the banks
breathe into men
more men than we can count
their eyes burned out by the sun
their faces flattened by the wind
their clothes bleached by the salt
their feet ready
their hands ready
and I say, do not fire
for we are a fragment
and they are a host
in front of us
in back of us
three hundred thousand guns
 
—Lesley Smith

[BlueIris]

1. Smith wrote this about the experience which inspired her to create "The Valley":

"Often the encounter with literature and history changes our own thinking and writing. ("The Valley" is) an example of my creative response to one section of a lengthy interview with a World War II veteran.

(This is a comment from) Major Richard Winters, 101st Airborne Division, (as he) discuss(es) the final weeks of World War II. American troops, advancing through Germany, are far outnumbered by the still-armed, and surrendering, soldiers of the Third Reich. Major Winters describes the journey:

"'We started down the Ruhr valley and after we left the Dusseldorf area where there was a mass surrender of (the German General) Model's army, 300,000, 350,000 in one clump. And then as we started down the towards Heidelberg, Ulm, Munich, then you had the big groups surrendering. Now you know it's over, and you just hope that there isn't some wild group that you get, a hard-headed group, that will cut you down because you're going through there with small units and there's thousands of men, all with weapons....you could see the troops lying on the banks. They all had weapons; they were far outnumbering us. Every mile there were more men that we had—in front of us, well there were none in front of us—or in back of us, and they all had weapons. And all it takes is one small group of hard heads and they could cut you down— boom—so you went with your fingers crossed.'"

http://osf1.gmu.edu/~lsmithg/responses.html

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. My dear BlueIris!

Wow, this is powerful!

What a compelling war poem it is...

Really beautiful...

I just love the imagery...

Thank you!

:hi:

[BlueIris]

3. Yeah, I think this one's amazing.

I found it approximately six years ago this week.

[BlueIris]

4. Kick.

[BlueIris]

5. Kick.

[BlueIris]

6. Kick.