The Script and Discussion Questions for Voices in...

Discussion and Action Guide 1 3/16/2008

The Script and Discussion Questions for Voices in Wartime

Below is the complete script of the documentary, Voices in Wartime. On the left-side of the matrix names of those

interviewed, references to stock and documentary film are offered. Title slides and changes are provided by a

solid black line that runs across the matrix. The middle of the matrix contains the script from the film, and the far

right column offers discussion questions.

How each instructor or facilitator conducts a discussion of the film will vary tremendously. It is recommended

that after viewing the film time be dedicated to creating a list of objectives for conducting the discussion. This list

of objectives will help put structure to the types of questions you will want to use as part of the discussion. Some

instructors may be using the film to present, discuss and critique poetry, some facilitators may wish to concentrate

their line of questioning on issues of war and peace. Questions provided here are suggested as guidelines and can

be embellished or changed to meet the needs of the group and the expertise and comfort of the facilitator.

Note: The sections of the script that are shaded in gray indicate portions of the film that appear in the 74-minute

version of the film, but have been removed from the shortened 57-minute version of Voices in Wartime.

Title and Locator

Clues

Content Script Discussion Questions

STOCK –

Archetypical images of

war from planes being

blown up and

battleships firing

moving to soldiers on

the ground.

GENERAL LENNOX:

… for an infantry man. For those who are in

combat. It‘s very hard for them to articulate

what they experience. They go through a

whole series of emotions, joy, elation, horror,

fear… What literary genre allows you to

portray that better than poetry? I don‘t know...

1. How difficult is it for you to relate an

experience that has been monumental

in your life?

2. Have you ever used writing to convey

your feelings about such an

experience?

Title – THE

TEACHER. Silence.

Fade to black.

INTERVIEW –

Lieutenant General

Lennox,

Superintendent of

West Point

That‘s why I think poetry is so important.

Many have said that it‘s very hard to articulate

that experience. And I think that poetry gives

you probably the only way you can deliver all of

those feelings simultaneously.

1. How have you relied on poetry to

express what you were thinking or

feeling?

2. What purpose does poetry serve for

you?

3. What are your thoughts on the

healing power of poetry?

Title – THE

SOLDIER. Silence.

Fade to black.

DOCUMENTARY –

David Connolly walks

down city street.

Rat Shit and the Weasel and I

are behind this paddy dike,

and Victor Charlie‘s giving us what

for.

And Rat Shit, he lifts his head,

just a little, but just enough

for the round

to go in one brown eye,

1. Who is ―Victor Charlie‖ in this poem?

2. What might be going through

Connolly’s mind as he sees his

―buddies die in front of him?‖

3. What picture does this poem paint in

your mind? How does Connolly’s

poem allow for you to create this

picture?


Connolly stops by a

fence, an American flag

in the background.

and I swear to Christ,

out the other.

And he starts thrashing,

and bleeding, and screaming,

and trying to get the top of his head

to stay on,

but we have to keep shooting.

A B-40 tunnels into the dike

and blows the Weasel against me.

He doesn‘t get the chance

to decide if he should give up and

die.

Now I‘m crying

and I‘m screaming, ―Medic,‖

But I have to keep shooting.

DOCUMENTARY –

Connolly is sitting

inside his bedroom.

At this point, I always wake,

and big, black Jerome

and little white William,

my brothers

are not dying beside me

even though

I can still smell their blood,

even though

I can still see them lying there.

You see, these two,

they‘ve been taking turns

dying on me,

Again and again and again

for all these long years,

and still people tell me,

―Forget Nam.‖

1. Why is it that friends and family might

suggest to Vietnam veterans that they

―forget Nam?‖ Why might this be

impossible?

2. What are the most powerful lines in

the poem for you?

3. How do you relate to them?

Title –THE

DOCTOR. Fade to

black.

STOCK – Soldiers

help each other in

combat.

JONATHAN SHAY:

…I don‘t believe that the metaphor of the

brotherhood of arms is strong enough. In

combat, men become each other‘s mothers…

What is meant by the brotherhood of

arms?

INTERVIEW –

Jonathan Shay

…we are talking about a clicking in of some

very deep emotional mechanisms that bond

soldiers

DOCUMENTARY –

Soldiers grieving

to each other. And, the grief that a soldier

feels when a comrade is killed or severely

maimed,

INTERVIEW –

Jonathan Shay

is akin to the grief of a mother whose child has

just been killed …

How might Shay’s reference to men acting

as each others mothers in war supersede

that caring notion of brotherhood?

Title – THE

DAUGHTER. Fade

to black.

STOCK – EMILY WARN:


Paratroopers. Soldier

arrives home.

My father was a paratrooper in D-Day, in

World War 2, and like many men, after the

war when we were victorious, he arrived back

home… and was thought of as a war hero…

INTERVIEW – Emily

Warn

He was a war hero, and then the rest of his life

he suffered from being a war hero…

DOCUMENTARY –

Emily Warn recites

―California Poppy‖

I was crying for you.

You brought me a California poppy

in the scented warmth

under the eucalyptus.

INTERVIEW – Emily

Warn

…my father suffered from combat trauma,

something that did not have a name then, so

he drank a lot, he fought a lot, he was unable

to hold down a job, and the marriage ended

when I was quite young…

What emotion is felt by the poet for her

father?

DOCUMENTARY –

Emily Warn recites


You knelt beside me

and let your eyes be my eyes

to the bottom of the earth.

Was that the look we held

that later was no more?

What does this poem say about the

importance of a relationship of a child to

his/her father?

INTERVIEW – Emily

Warn

He died at the age of 53, walking home from

a tavern. He was found in a snowdrift the

following day.

DOCUMENTARY –

Emily Warn recites


Come back,

moment in the grass.

Come back, momentary father.

1. What feeling does ―California Poppy‖

leave you with after having heard it?

2. What feeling does ―California Poppy‖

leave you with after having heard it?

What emotion is felt by the poet for

her father?

Title – THE

REPORTER. Fade

to black.

INTERVIEW – Chris

Hedges

CHRIS HEDGES:

The reality of combat is nothing like the image

I think many of us carry into combat. First of

all, there‘s the factor of fear, which is

overpowering in situations where violent death

is all around you. Fear is something which you

have a constant second-by-second, minute-by-

minute, hour-by-hour battle to control. And you

always have moments in which fear takes

control in which you fail. Which your instincts

towards self-preservation make you crumble…

1. How would you define fear? How do

you think fear affects your body?

How does it affect you mentally?

2. How do you control free?

STOCK – ―Thin Red

Line‖

…Although we see very graphic images of

violence presented to us by the entertainment

industry, we taste a bit of wars exhilaration

and its perverse thrill without tasting that

fear… We learn that we‘re not the people we

thought we were.

How do you imagine that fear is

controlled in battle?

INTERVIEW – Chris We have images, all of us, I think of heroics, of How might fear overpower a person?


Hedges being able to do noble deeds under duress.

And we find that fear is so pervasive that often

times carrying out just very basic functions is

very difficult.

What might be the end results of this

reality?

Title – THE

LIEUTENANT.

Fade to black.

INTERVIEW – Paul

Mysliwiec

LT. PAUL MYSLIWIEC:

You know, we didn‘t want to have to be part of

that war. And given that we were put there, it

wasn‘t like, it wasn‘t like we were going out

and causing harm to people because we

wanted to. It was just – the more efficiently,

the faster, the more – the better aim we had

while killing people, more likely the faster we‘d

get to go home, which is what we wanted to

do.

1. Have you ever done something you

didn’t want to do? How did you react

under that situation?

2. How is Lt. Mysliwiec’s statement

surprising for a warrior? How does

the statement reflect the reality of

being a human being?

3. What is Lt. Mysliwiec saying about the

role of being a warrior?

Title – THE

WITNESS. Fade to

black.

DOCUMENTARY –

Chris Abani

CHRIS ABANI:

―BREAK A LEG‖

His foot, torn off at the ankle,

Half wrapped in corrugated iron

Held the promise of a gift.

Jesus smiled sadly from the

Photo taped to his gun‘s stock.

Blood, like the rain, soaked

everything.

The medic, impotent,

Suspicious, like God, lied.

1. What is the promise of the gift

referred to in this poem?

2. Why might Jesus be depicted as smiling

sadly?

3. What was the state of mind of the

medic upon seeing the boy?

4. Why is the medic suspicious?

5. About what did the medic lie?

6. How might you have reacted in this

situation?

INTERVIEW – Chris

Abani

The poem ―Break a Leg‖ comes from two

places… several photographs taken by actually

an American photographer from… Life

magazine who was murdered… and never

came back from the Biafran war. And there is

a photograph he took of a young soldier who

has no leg, holding an AK-47 with a

photograph of Jesus taped to the gunstock. So

that‘s where part of that came from. But also

I have an older relative who fought in the war

who was 12 years old, as a soldier. And his

whole foot was torn off by a claymore mine.

ACT 1

STOCK – Cave

painting – primitive

warriors

RACHEL BENTHAM:

―War‖

DOCUMENTARY –

Rachel Bentham

STOCK – Bombs

contention between people

this is how we begin

specific conflicts

armed hostilities

1. What are the contentions in today’s

world?

2. What do you think Bentham means by

the title of her poem, War—the concise


dropping/woman

running

STOCK – Napalm

baby

STOCK – Woman

kisses Sailor

STOCK –

Hitler/bodies in river

STOCK – Over the

top

STOCK – Marines at

funeral

STILL – Marine in

Pacific

the ―art of war‖

- it‘s certainly not a science,

is it?

but doesn‘t art create?

strategy and tactics

been in the wars?

war baby

war bride

war crime that which violates

international laws of war

as if laws are effective in wartime

war cry

war of attrition

war of nerves

war grave

war weary, just hearing the words.

version?

3. In your thinking, what is the difference

between the ―art of war‖ and the

―science of war?‖ Is one better than

the other? If so, how?

4. Bentham speaks of war crime in her

poem. How might war generally be

considered a crime? What are some

of the international laws of war?

Historically and in today’s wars how

have these laws been violated?

5. Explain each of the words Bentham

uses that follow the word ―war.‖

6. How are you a victim of being ―war

weary?‖

STOCK – Soldiers

march off to war.

They are enthusiastic,

unprepared for the

carnage they will soon

face.

STOCK – Africans

march and sing a

cadence. Marines

march.

DOCUMENTARY –

Cadets at West Point

GENERAL LENNOX:

These cadets… know that they might be in

combat pretty quickly after they graduate. So

they want to know. They want to get as much

information as they possibly can.

1. What is it that warriors need to know

before they go off to war?

2. Who should warriors listen to about

going to war?

INTERVIEW –

General Lennox

…And poetry provides us a great vehicle to

teach the cadets, as much as anyone can, what

that combat is like.

Of the poems you have heard in Voices in

Wartime how do you think they are great

teaching tools?

INTERVIEW – Paul

Mysliwiec

LT. PAUL MYSLIWIEC:

―I have a rendezvous with death,

At midnight in some blazing town,

When Spring trips north again this

Year.

And I to my pledged word am

true.

I shall not fail that rendezvous.‖

1. How does the poem, ―I Have a

Rendezous with Death,‖ by Alan Seeger

speak to the role of a warrior?

2. What is meant when Seeger claims: ―I

shall not fail that rendezvous?‖

STOCK – American We all of course now volunteer for the army. Why does this poem resonate for so many


soldiers fight in Iraq There is no draft anymore. There hasn‘t been

awhile. And it‘s not particularly pleasant that

we have to go do these things. Now that it‘s a

peacekeeping mission, it‘s even less pleasant.

And Alan Seeger‘s ―Rendezvous with Death,‖

people?

INTERVIEW – Paul

Mysliwiec

as well as anything describes how I feel about

my duty to go over there. It‘s very much that I

to my pledged word am true. I shall not fail

that Rendez-vous.

Do most warriors who enter battle have

the same feelings as expressed in Seeger’s

poem?

STOCK – Greeks

fighting.

SUPER

STILLS – Greeks

fighting.

HOMER:

Rage—Goddess, sing the rage of

Peleus' son Achilles,

Murderous, doomed, that cost the

Achaens countless losses,

Hurling down to the House of

Death so many souls,

Great fighters' souls, but made

their bodies carrion,

Feasts for the dogs and birds,

And the will of Zeus was moving

toward its end.

Begin, Muse…

1. Why is it that Achilles is filled with

rage?

2. What is meant by the phrase ―made

their bodies carrion?‖

3. What is the will of Zeus?

4. What is the role of the Muse in this

story?

STILL - Close-up –

Original of text of

―The Iliad‖

JON STALLWORTHY:

The Iliad is the earliest full comprehensive

account of battle… You have the violent

hand-to-hand combat

INTERVIEW – Jon

Stallworthy

which is described with a terrible force. I mean

the account of spears going through a brain

and what actually then happens, how the brain

spatters the shield of the man who‘s thrown

the spear and so on is very, very graphic…

1. How would you describe the Illiad?

2. How might the Illiad be overlooked as

a chronicle of war?

STILL – Plato. TODD SWIFT:

Poets are unpredictable. Plato banned them

from his Republic. He thought they were

troublemakers.

…the thing about poets

What is the role of a poet in society?

INTERVIEW – Todd

Swift

is they‘re always the first to broach a subject,

or to dare to say something. They break

taboos – that‘s what they do in society.

What expectations do you place on the

poet?

TITLE – ―2003‖

over burning Baghdad.

STOCK – Invasion of

Iraq

SINAN ANTOON:

the wind was tired

DOCUMENTARY –

Sinan Antoon

from carrying the coffins

it leaned against a palm tree

A satellite inquired:

Whereto now?

1. How does Antoon use metaphor in his

poem?

2. What is the significance of the question

that satellite asks? Why does the palm


the silence

in the wind‘s cane murmured: ―Baghdad‖

and the palm tree caught fire

tree catch fire with the answer to the

question?

STOCK – Baghdad

burns

DOCUMENTARY –

White House

invitation. Move to

Laura Bush.

TITLE – JANUARY,

2003

EMILY WARN:

In January 2003, Laura Bush invited poets

from around the country to a gathering at the

White House to honor Emily Dickinson, Walt

Whitman, and Langston Hughes. (All three

were very anti-war.)

What do you know of the poetry of

Dickinson, Whitman and Hughes?

INTERVIEW – Emily

Warn

Poets Against the War began when Laura Bush

invited Sam Hamill to the White House. I also

received an invitation from Laura Bush to

attend a symposium on American Voices. Sam

invited 50 of his closest friends to use the

occasion to speak out against the

administration‘s policies that seemed to be

leading us to war.

Is it the role or duty of poets to speak out

when their consciousness guides them?

How do you support your position?

INTERVIEW – Sam

Hamill

SAM HAMILL:

I think they thought we could actually go to the

White House and they could do their little

presentation to honor Walt Whitman and

Langston Hughes and Emily Dickinson without

any political fallout. It was a stupid, and naive,

virtually illiterate way of thinking. Anybody who

has read Whitman or Langston Hughes knows

that these were men who were outspoken in

their devotion to our constitution, to the

democracy and human dignity. All those things

have enormous political implications. They

were overtly political poets.

1. How does democracy support are

right to state our beliefs?

2. How does democracy guarantee

human dignity?

STILL – Emily

Dickinson, hair pulled

back tight.

And Emily Dickinson was a divine political poet

in a subtle way.

STILLS – The

aftermath of a Civil

War battle. We hear

Dickinson’s poem

#639.

My Portion is Defeat—today—

A paler luck than Victory—

Less Paeans—fewer Bells—

The Drums don't follow Me—with tunes—

Defeat—a somewhat slower—means—

More Arduous than Balls—Balls --

1. How is Dickinson using the word

―portion‖ in this poem? Check out the

various meanings of the word.

2. What does defeat look and sound like

in this poem?

3. How does defeat look and sound?

STILLS – More

close-up we realize

that the lumps in the

landscape are corpses.

Moving closer into the

faces of the dead –

'Tis populous with Bone and stain—

And Men too straight to stoop again—,

And Piles of solid Moan—

And Chips of Blank—in Boyish Eyes—

And scraps of Prayer—

And Death's surprise,

What is the message that Dickinson is

conveying in the last stanza of the poem?


surprised and frozen. Stamped visible—in Stone—

STILL – Walt

Whitman, bushy white

beard, piercing eyes.

JON STALLWORTHY:

Whitman, I mean in every way, stands at the

gate of modern poetry. …he‘s one of the first

poets, I think,

INTERVIEW – Jon

Stallworthy

to give a full, and rich, and moving expression

to the cost of warfare…

STILLS – American

Civil War

SUPER

―Wound Dresser‖

manuscript

WALT WHITMAN:

The neck of the cavalry-man with

the bullet through and through I

examine,

Hard the breathing rattle, quite

glazed already the eye, yet life

struggles hard,

Come, sweet death! be persuaded

O beautiful death!

In mercy come quickly.

1. What conflict does Whitman present in

this excerpt from his poem, Wound

Dresser?‖

2. What picture does this poem present to

you?

3. Who is wishing for death to come

―quickly?‖

INTERVIEW – Jon

Stallworthy

JON STALLWORTHY:

…he writes with tremendous compassion, and

compassion was not a note often heard in

poems about war before.

How is compassion expressed in the poem,

―Wound Dresser?‖

INTERVIEW –

Marilyn Nelson

MARILYN NELSON:

Like anyone else who knows anything about

the poetry of Whitman and especially Langston

Hughes, I can‘t imagine what Mrs. Bush and

her people were thinking about.

STILL – Langston

Hughes, self-

possessed, calm, black.

The voice of Langston

Hughes reads

―Expendable.‖

LANGSTON HUGHES:

We will take you and kill you,

Expendable.

DOCUMENTARY –

Moving past the

gravestones in

Arlington cemetery.

We will fill you full of lead,

Expendable.

STILL – Soldier looks

at gravestone.

And when you‘re dead

In the nice cold ground,

We‘ll put your name

Above your head –

If your head

Can be found.

1. How would you characterize the tone

of the poem?

2. What feeling(s) are you left with after

having heard the poem?

3. What does the poem have to say

about warriors in war? What does it

say about those who declare war?

How might you say that this poem is as

relevant today as it was when it was

written?

INTERVIEW –

Marilyn Nelson

I can‘t imagine how they could imagine a

symposium about the poetry of Langston

Hughes, especially, which didn‘t at some point


become political. Langston Hughes was a very

political poet.

STOCK/STILLS –

9/11

TITLE – SEPTEMBER,

2001

GEORGE W. BUSH:

We must choose between a world of fear and

a world of progress. We cannot stand by and

do nothing while dangers gather. We must

stand up for our security and for the

permanent rights and hopes of mankind.

In your thinking, what are the conditions

for one country to wage war on another?

STOCK – President

George W. Bush

outlines the case

against Iraq to the U.N

By heritage and by choice, the United States of

America will make that stand.

STOCK – Japan

attacks Pearl Harbor.

ANNOUNCER:

We interrupt this program to bring you a

special news bulletin. The Japanese have

attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii by air, President

Roosevelt has just announced.

STOCK - Battleship

Arizona burning in

Pearl Harbor.

ROOSEVELT:

Since the unprovoked and

STOCK – Franklin D.

Roosevelt addresses

Congress.

dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday,

December 7, 1941, a state of war has existed

between the United States and the Japanese

empire.

STOCK – Americans

and Vietnamese fight

and die in Vietnam.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON:

Tonight Americans and Asians are dying for a

world where each people may choose its own

path to change.

STOCK - Lyndon B.

Johnson speaks at

Johns Hopkins.

(4/7/65)

This is the principle for which our ancestors

fought in the valleys of Pennsylvania. It is the

principle for which our sons fight tonight in the

jungles of Viet-Nam…

INTERVIEW –

Christopher Hedges

CHRIS HEDGES:

When a country prepares for war and goes

into war, there is a kind of collective euphoria

or madness that takes over the population.

What are you recollections of how we

prepared to go to war in Afghanistan and in

Iraq?

STOCK – Soldiers

load onto planes.

What happens in wartime, …the state and the

media…gives us the language by which we

articulate the experience we are undergoing.

How did our language change?

INTERVIEW –

Christopher Hedges

You know, Countdown with Iraq. Showdown

with Iraq. All these kinds of clichés and

aphorisms, seep their way into our language.

So that even when we have a kind of disquiet

about what‘s going on, we‘re trapped. Because

How can repetition of language change

human behavior?


it‘s those clichés and aphorisms we use in

order to try to explain our experience.

ACT 2

INTERVIEW –

Marilyn Nelson

MARILYN NELSON:

If we lose sight of our humanity, our limitations,

our poverty and believe that we are able to

know the all over arching truth then we lose

something fundamental

1. How is it that we know truth?

2. What is the gauge that humans can use

to measure what we should and should

not do?

STOCK – New York to all ethics I think… The role of poets is to

remind us of our humanity…And I think poetry

takes us back to the center of who we are as

human beings.

How do poets pave the way for others to

say what is on their minds?

DOCUMENTARY –

Sam Hamill looks over

manuscript

And I think poetry takes us back to the center

of who we are as human beings.

Why is it that poets seem to be the first to

speak out on a social issue, cause or

political event?

DOCUMENTARY –

Sam Hamill looks over

manuscript

SAM HAMILL:

In the midst of preparing a big event in San

Francisco to honor the life and work of

Kenneth Rexroth, the great poet,

INTERVIEW – Sam

Hamill

I took a little break and ran to the post office

to get my mail. And there was a

DOCUMENTARY –

Invitation

large, cream colored, square envelope with

―The White House‖ in gold in the upper left

hand corner.

INTERVIEW – Sam

Hamill

I knew what it was. There was no other

reason I would get anything from the White

House. And I felt queasy…

DOCUMENTARY –

Hamill in his office.

It was more about how best to respond. In

what way to say no. Should I simply write a

polite letter and decline? Or should I speak for

my conscience…

How do you respond to requests that you

find unacceptable in your own thinking?

INTERVIEW – Sam

Hamill

I really felt I had to make my position known.

And to state it pretty clearly.

How can you constructively say no?

DOCUMENTARY -

Hamill’s fingers dance

across the keyboard.

I would invite my fellow poets to stand beside

me, as many as wished to. Because I invited

poets to speak from their conscience. Poets

tend to be humanists.

In your thinking, was Hamill’s response

constructive? Appropriate?

INTERVIEW – Sam

Hamill

And they tend to see things from angles that

other people don‘t pause long enough to look

at…

What constitutes being a humanist?

DOCUMENTARY –

Poems on screens.

Lines of poetry close-

up.

And I sent the letter off to about 3 dozen

friends. And the poems began coming in and

the word began going out…

PETER LEVITT:

Sam sent me an e-mail and said I‘m going to

the White House and I want to present some

poems

How can citizens make their voices heard?

Are there times when it is inappropriate to

speak out in a democracy? If so, when and

what are those times?

INTERVIEW – Peter against the war because it‘s impossible for me


Levitt to just stand up and pretend this war is not

going forward and is not going on. And I want

to make some kind of statement on behalf of

all the people in the nation. And I want the

poets to be able to do it.

DOCUMENTARY –

Peter Levitt recites his

untitled poem.

Fill the air with poems

so thick---

even bombs

can‘t fall through.

In ―untitled‖ what hope does Levitt have

for poems? How does this poem reflect his

thoughts about the power of poetry?

DOCUMENTARY –

Snow falling .

Unbelievably beautiful.

ALEXANDRA SANYAL:

Snow so fluffy and soft.

DOCUMENTARY -

A little girl –

Alexandra - nine years

old in Massachusetts.

In her room. She is

reciting a poem.

I like to run and jump into it.

It leads to peace and love.

Snow stops war

and fights

that lead to killing.

So snow come today.

Why does snow usually reflect peace?

What images does Alexandra’s poem bring

to your thinking?

Why are poems like Alexandra’s so

impressive? Important?

DOCUMENTARY –

Sherman Pearl

SHERMAN PEARL:

The Poem in Time of War

should wake the city shouting

EXTRA! EXTRA!

then whisper the story behind the

story

like a conspirator. It should be

short, stirring

as the president's call to arms;

soft enough for a flag at half-mast;

strong enough to stiffen the

bereaved;

spacious enough to serve as a body

bag.

The poem should carry the news

that men

die miserably for lack of. It is

a brief on behalf of the living, a

paper megaphone

for the voices of the dead. It must

be

the world's last will and testament,

a listing

of what will be left. It steals from

forebears:

Sassoon's doomed diary and

Auden's call to love.

1. What is the significance of comparing a

breaking story with shouts and then

whispering the meaning of the story?

What is the story that is being talked

about in this poem?

2. Tell about the comparisons made in

this poem.

3. Compare Pearl’s poem with Peter

Levitt’s ―untitled‖ poem.


DOCUMENTARY –

Manhattan.

MARILYN NELSON:

Who are the Good Guys now? Who

are the bad?

DOCUMENTARY –

Marilyn Nelson recites

―unrhymed peace

sonnet.‖

Nobody's wearing Stetsons, black

or white.

Each has a history of evil deeds:

one individual, one centuries

of rapine and ideals. It's almost

noon.

One leader straps on bombs. The

armies mass.

We'll blow that s.o.b. to kingdom

come,

everyone thinks; bring on

Armageddon!

Yosemite Sam, frustrated and

enraged,

jumps up and down, shooting holes

in the clouds.

And Africa is dying out, of AIDS.

Why the hell doesn't the moving

finger write?

What the hell are you waiting for,

my God?

Why don't you tell those bastards

not to fight?

For Pete's sake, send an angel!

Burn a bush!

1. What confusion is expressed in the

poem, ―Unrhymed Peace Sonnet?‖

How is this addressed?

2. How much do you know about the

film, ―High Noon?‖ Read up on it and

relate it to the poem.

3. How does the Looney Tunes

character, Yosemite Sam, fit into this

poem?

4. Why does the poet talk about Africa in

the middle of the poem?

5. What are the answers being asked for

in the poem?

INTERVIEW – Sam

Hamill

SAM HAMILL:

I thought we would have a few hundred

poems. Because all the major poets in the

United States oppose this administration in

various ways. But, within about 36 hours, we

had 1500 entries. The e-mail site basically

collapsed from overload.

What is the role of a poet in time of war?

How is this role different as to what it

might be at other times?

DOCUMENTARY -

Seattle

EMILY WARN:

I, at that point, was traveling across the

country… and called in a couple days after I

received the invitation for Laura Bush,

INTERVIEW – Emily

Warn

and said ―How‘s it going?‖ and he said, ―Help!

I need some help!‖ …

DOCUMENTARY –

Emily Warn types

Sam asked if I would help set up an

infrastructure, a technological infrastructure on

the web, so that those voices could be heard...

INTERVIEW – Emily

Warn

In fact, the entire poetry website, Poets Against

the War, was on a

DOCUMENTARY –

Poets Against the War

website

laptop that a friend of mine carried around.

ALEXANDRA SANYAL:

Well, my mom said,

INTERVIEW – ―Do you want to come see your poem?‖ And I


Alexandra Indira

Sanyal.

said, ―Yes!‖ And she came up and she showed

it to me. And I just paused for a minute.

Because I was thinking – wow! I‘m actually on

a computer! My poem is actually in there.

And what will happen? Where will it go? Who

will find it? Will people actually read it?

How does poetry move people to seek

truth?

DOCUMENTARY –

London. A red two-

decker wipes the

frame and we move to

the windows of a

second floor

apartment.

TODD SWIFT:

…I decided to email a hundred poets.

DOCUMENTARY –

The book comes out

of a printer.

Some of them were in Ireland, some were in

Australia, New Zealand, Canada, America,…

INTERVIEW – Todd

Swift

…really all around the world, India as well. I

just asked them to send me poems with their

feelings about what was happening.

What place does poetry have in a time of

war? For the poet? For those who listen

to poetry?

DOCUMENTARY –

Sampurna Chattarji in

Mumbai, India is

reading ―Easy‖ in a

market and a lush

garden.

SAMPURNA CHATTARJI:

Death is easy to pronounce.

He deserved to die.

They ought to be shot.

Hanging‘s too good for him.

The words fall glib.

Throwaway lines

sentencing them to death.

Distant observer,

you speak without guilt, or fear

of misplaced allegiances.

You just need something to say,

that‘s all.

The right sentiment, rightly

declared

whichever way your loyalties blow

in the gust of the smokefilled air.

A country burns.

The death-dealers deserved to die,

you say.

Death is easy to pronounce.

It‘s the smell of burning children

that‘s hard.

1. Who are these people who deserve to

die, of whom Chattarji speaks in her

poem? How do they represent the

enemy?

2. Why is it easy to speak so negatively

about human beings who may be the

enemy?

3. Who are the distant observers? How

does Chattarji mock them?

4. What is right, the correct, sentiment

to be made about war? About victims?

About the reality of war? About the

possibility of peace?

5. What are the hidden realities of war

that are not often considered? How

might these realities, if acknowledged

initially, make war more difficult to

initiate?

INTERVIEW – Todd

Swift

TODD SWIFT:

…this wasn‘t a Dentists Against the War

experience. This wasn‘t Zoologists Against the

War or surgeons, or policemen. This was a

Poets Against the War movement. It was

How are poets subversive?


originally generated by people that write

poetry, that get excited about poetry, that just

happened to communicate on the Internet.

And it spread.

STOCK – White

House

Laura Bush, we think,

INTERVIEW – Emily

Warn

hearing some kind of news about what was

happening in response to her invitation,

cancelled the event.

STILLS – Newspaper

articles about Poets

Against the War.

And she cancelled it very quickly.

The symposium‘s cancellation drew intense

DOCUMENTARY –

Montage of poems

media attention. By that time, Poets against

the War had 1000‘s and 1000‘s of poems.

We wanted these voices to be heard.

Poets Against the War put out a call for

readings to happen on March 5th… …we put

out the call

How would you define the process that

poetry allows the listener to explore after

hearing a poem?

INTERVIEW – Emily

Warn

and hundreds of readings were organized all

over the world. In little tiny towns in New

Mexico, in Washington state, in Ohio. And we

would keep getting emails from people. They

felt a sense of connection, that they too could

join. Not just by submitting poems, but by

organizing readings in their communities.

How might poetry be an invitation to

dialogue?

ACT 3

STOCK – Ancient

war.

Poets‘ involvement with war was nothing new.

It was as old as poetry itself.

STILL – Move in on

Enheduanna, she

stands in a procession,

two priestesses behind

her.

TITLE –

ENHEDUANNA –

2100 B.C.

STILL – Panning

across to the Goddess

of War; ―Lament to

the Spirit of War‖

ENHEDUANNA:

God of War, with your fierce wings

you slice away the land and charge

STOCK – A storm

rages, knocking down

trees. The wind howls.

Fire rages.

disguised as a raging storm,…

Like a fiery monster you fill the

land with poison…

You are blood rushing down a

mountain,

Spirit of hate, greed and anger,

dominator of heaven and earth!

Your fire wafts over our land,

riding on a beast,…

1. In what spirit is this poem written?

What does the title of the poem say to

us about Enheduanna’s feeling about

war and destruction?

2. Is there indication in the poem as to

the cause of destruction brought

against humanity by the God of War?

If so, what is it?

3. What are the ways in which the God


You decide all fate.

You triumph over all our rites.

Who can explain why you go on

so?

of War brings about destruction?

4. What was Enheduanna hoping to learn

by asking the last question in the

poem?

STILL – The Light

Brigade gathers in a

wide shot.

ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON:

Half a league, half a league,

Half a league onward,

All in the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

What countries were involved in the

Crimean War and for what reasons?

STILL—Manuscript—

―Charge of the Light

Brigade‖ – black and

white

"Forward, the Light Brigade!‖

Charge for the guns he said,

Into the valley of Death


"Forward, the Light Brigade!‖

Was there a man dismay'd?

1. As hear the poem aloud what do you

notice about its rhythm?

2. What is meant by ―league‖ in the

poem?

3. Why is the phrase: ―Their’s not to

make reply, Their’s not to reason why,

Their’s but to do and die‖ referred to

as an anthem of futility?

STOCK – ―Charge of

the Light Brigade‖

Not tho' the soldier knew

Someone had blunder'd:

Their's not to make reply,

Their's not to reason why,

Their's but to do and die:

Into the valley of Death


Why do you think the poem is one of the

most quoted in the English language?

STILL – ―Charge of

the Light Brigade.‖

JON STALLWORTHY:

And the courage

INTERVIEW – Jon

Stallworthy

was just extraordinary, but the blunder was

extraordinary. And Tennyson‘s poem captures

the futility, the blunder, the wastage…

STOCK – World

War I – muddy,

desperate, and full of

technology far

advanced from the

previous century.

JONATHAN SCHELL:

By the time of the First World War, the means

available for war had overwhelmed and grown

beyond any conceivable purpose for which the

war might be fought. If you were going to fight

a great power war, then necessarily it was

going to be a war of millions of men facing one

another with artillery, with tanks. That is what

a war was going to be if you were going to

fight one at that time…

INTERVIEW –

Jonathan Schell

And that was the tragedy of the First World

War. And that was why so many millions had

died. It was because of this transformation

that had occurred in the character of warfare.

STOCK – Army

charges.

…the armies on each side were just thrown

into this gap where they were chewed up and

destroyed.

INTERVIEW –

Jonathan Schell

…it was a zone of absolute horror but in a


rather limited area. And it

STOCK – Soldiers

rush at each other.

Corpses lie stacked up

in piles.

was a war of horror for soldiers, much more

than for civilians.

STILLS – Montage of

World War I poets in

uniform – young,

innocent, and doomed.

TODD SWIFT:

At the beginning of the 20th century, the idea

of the war poet was not an anti-war poet. The

war poet was someone who was in the war,

probably an officer who had been educated at

Cambridge or Oxford,……with these very

refined sensibilities.

1. How do poets pave the way for others

to say what is on their minds?

2. Why is it that poets seem to be the

first to speak out on a social issue,

cause or political event?

INTERVIEW – Todd

Swift

These were not 20th century poets, up until the

moment that they experienced these

bombardments and this horrific mass-

slaughter.

STILL – Siegfried

Sassoon

TITLE – Siegfried

Sassoon

JON STALLWORTHY:

Sassoon was a decorated soldier. A man of

legendary courage, he was known

INTERVIEW – Jon

Stallworthy

as ―Mad Jack‖ because of his bombing

exploits. He used to go out at night on patrol

with a pocket full of hand grenades and throw

them at the enemy. And then come back

again.

STILL – Siegfried

Sassoon

Sassoon‘s poems… deliver a tremendous sort

of shock…

STILL – ―Does it

Matter?‖ – in period

type

SIEGFRIED SASSOON:

Does it matter?—losing your

legs?...

For people will always be kind,

And you need not show that you

mind

When the others come in after

hunting

To gobble their muffins and eggs.

Does it matter ?—losing your

sight?...

There's such splendid work for the

blind;

And people will always be kind,

As you sit on the terrace

remembering

And turning your face to the light.

1. What do you think are the true

feelings of Sassoon in his poem, ―Does

it Matter?‖

2. What would be your feelings if you

were in this situation?

3. How do you think the phrase ―And

people will always be kind‖ is meant?

INTERVIEW – Lt.

General Lennox

GENERAL LENNOX:

In World War One, particularly with the British

poets, I think we see that they were brought up


in a very romantic era. Their concept of war

was built on the 17 and 1800s where battles

were fought one on one with dignity.

STILL – Australians

at Gallipoli

SUPER

STOCK – World

War One

And they found themselves in trenches

confronted with modern technology, concertina,

machine guns, things that were not expected

and the war was long and drawn out.

JON STALLWORTHY:

And Sassoon… made this public protest, he

wrote to his commanding officer saying,

How do feel about Sassoon’s statement?

INTERVIEW – Jon

Stallworthy

SIEGFRIED SASSOON:

―I am a soldier speaking for soldiers and I must

protest that the war on which I entered as a

war of defense has now become a war of

aggression and conquest.‖

In your thinking, do people have a right to

protest war if they feel it wrong? Is this a

right or a duty?

STILL – The original

of Sassoon’s

declaration.

―I am making this statement as an act of

willful defiance of military authority… I am a

soldier,… I have seen and endured the

sufferings of the troops, and I can no longer be

a party to prolong these sufferings for ends

which I believe to be evil and unjust…‖

How would you respond to the adage, ―My

country right or wrong?‖

INTERVIEW – Jon

Stallworthy

JON STALLWORTHY:

Now I suppose it is not unthinkable that he

could have been court marshaled and shot for

that. But he wasn‘t, he was something of a

hero because of his, he had the Military Cross,

he had a medal, the public knew him. The

government was severely embarrassed by

this,…

STOCK – Train

through English

countryside.

Sassoon was whisked away… to Edinburgh, a

long way from London and sent to a military

hospital called the Craig Lockhart,

Why might Sassoon have felt ashamed of

being at Craiglockhart?

STILL –

Craiglockheart Mental

Hospital

which was a hospital for people suffering from

shell-shock.

INTERVIEW –

Dominic Hibberd

TITLE – Dominic

Hibberd

DOMINIC HIBBERD:

Sassoon was rather bored by newcomers. He

didn‘t really want to meet anybody else while

he was at Craiglockhart. He was ashamed of

being there anyway. He felt he was a failure.

He felt he‘d been silenced by authority and he

shouldn‘t have given in. So he wasn‘t terribly

enthusiastic when Owen knocked on his door.

STILL – Wilfred

Owen

TITLE – Wilfred

Owen

But Owen, on the other hand, was immensely

excited to meet a published poet… And they

did eventually become close friends, very close

friends, I think. And they found they had a

great deal in common… Wilfred Owen came

from a

STILL – The family is

together in a garden.

lower middle class background… Four

children to be brought up. So there was never

any spare cash around.


STILL – Wilfred

Owen in garden.

Owen was a committed poet from his late

teens onwards. He was a great admirer of

Keats…

INTERVIEW –

Dominic Hibberd

and other romantics, Wordsworth in particular,

and he knew from them that to be a poet was

the greatest calling that anybody could possibly

have. And he had never had any doubt that

that‘s what he wanted to be.

1. How would you assess Owen’s belief

that being a poet was the greatest

calling that anybody could possible

have?

2. How are poets regarded today?

STILL – Wilfred

Owen

…he was sent out to France at the beginning

of 1917 and within three weeks he was in one

of the

STOCK – Machine

guns and cannon firing.

most appalling circumstances one could

possibly imagine… …he was sent into a

German dugout in no man‘s land that had

recently been captured as a British outpost.

And he had to keep his platoon there for 50

hours, he says under constant shellfire,

INTERVIEW –

Dominic Hibberd

expecting at any minute to be buried alive.

The place was slowly flooding with rainwater,

with the water rising above their knees so that

at any moment they might have been buried or

drowned or just died of shock…

Given Owen’s and his men’s service in the

army how do you think they would be

affected by their experiences?

STOCK – Soldiers in

trenches moving

They were then taken out for a short period,

put back in again in a quite different situation

on the top of a hill in very hard frost. So it had

been heavy rain and mud but now it was bitter

frost. And they were out on the snow exposed,

unable to move. One man in his platoon froze

to death…

STOCK - Explosion … And he was eventually almost killed by a

shell that

INTERVIEW –

Dominic Hibberd

dropped near his head while he was asleep

and he was blown into the air. And that finally

broke his nerve.

STILL – Wilfred

Owen

JONATHAN SHAY:

In World War One, it was called shell shock.

In World War Two, it was called combat

neurosis. And now it‘s called post-traumatic

stress disorder, but it‘s all the same

phenomenon…

Expound on what Shay means when he

claims that ―what spills blood, spills spirit?‖

INTERVIEW –

Jonathan Shay

There will always be psychological injuries in

war just like there are always physical injuries.

And, the historical record is that they rise and

fall together. What spills blood, spills spirit.

INTERVIEW –

David Connolly

DAVID CONNOLLY:

I don't believe that the trauma of combat ever

goes away, whether you win or lose the war.

My father used to wake up at night. I know

plenty of WW II vets, the last "good" war, the

Connolly speaks of going through ―unholy

and unnatural‖ things. Do people outside

of warfare experience the same

phenomenon? If so, what are they? How

do you deal with these events?


war we won, the war that saved the whole

world, I know plenty of them that still wake up

nights. You don't go through things that are

that unnatural, that are that unholy, you don't

go through them unchanged.

STILL –

Craiglockhart military

hospital

JON STALLWORTHY:

Now Wilfred Owen was already at Craig

Lockhart and he was suffering from shell-

shock… And so it came about that Sassoon in

a sense, undertook the tutelage of Owen…

INTERVIEW – Jon

Stallworthy

It was a wonderful good fortune of Owen‘s

that he should have met Sassoon when he did -

because Sassoon

STILL – Owens’

manuscript;

―Fragment: A

Farewell‖

showed him how to find his own voice and find

his own subject.

WILFRED OWEN:

―I saw his round mouth's crimson

deepen as it fell,

Like a Sun, in his last deep hour;

Watched the magnificent recession

of farewell,

Clouding, half gleam, half glower,

And a last splendour burn the

heavens of his cheek.

1. How do you imagine it would be like

to see someone die? What would you

see? What would you feel? How

would you describe what you

experienced to another person?

2. What imagery in the poem strikes you

as being appropriately descriptive of

the moments of death?

3. What is meant by the title of the

poem, ―Fragment: A Farewell?‖

STILL – Owen’s

manuscript – move in

on ―In different skies.‖

And in his eyes

The cold stars lighting, very old

and bleak,

In different skies.‖

STOCK – World

War One at the front.

JONATHAN SHAY:

People who have been through heavy fighting

where many people have died

Shay talks about carrying an imprint of

death on you when you’ve experienced

seeing someone die. How might having this

INTERVIEW –

Jonathan Shay

seem to carry a kind of imprint of death on

them where the dead are more real to them

than the living…

imprint affect your daily life?

STOCK – Soldiers at

the front, exhausted

and numb

Owen speaks of such people as the men

whose minds the dead have ravaged…

WILFRED OWEN:

―Above all I am not concerned with Poetry.

What does Owen mean when he claims

that poetry is the ―pity of war.‖

STILL – Owen’s

writing.

My subject is War, and the pity of

War.

The poetry is in the pity…

...All a poet can do today is warn. That

is why true Poets must be truthful.‖

JON STALLWORTHY:

…he had to go back to the front to bear

witness.

INTERVIEW – Jon

Stallworthy

And he says in one of his letters, ―I came out to

lead these boys as well as an officer can and to

watch their sufferings that I may speak of

What does it mean to bear witness? Or, to

testify to an event such as those

experienced in war? Is bearing witness and


them as well as a pleader can.‖ So he goes

back so that he can testify to the horrors of the

war.

testifying to the horrors of war an ethical

cause?

STILL – Sambre and

Oise canal

TITLE - Sambre et

Oise Canal

And I think he went, knowing he wouldn‘t

come back. …they were trying to throw a

pontoon bridge over a canal and the German

machine guns were about 30 yards away. And

these chaps were just carrying their pontoons,

putting them in the river. And Owen went

backwards and forwards between them

INTERVIEW – Jon

Stallworthy

saying, ―You‘re doing very well my boy, just

move that a little bit to the left, a little bit to

the right. You‘re doing very well, you‘re doing

very well.‖ And then he was hit and killed…

STILL – Owen’s

manuscript; reading of

―The Last Laugh‖

SUPER

STOCK – World

War One

WILFRED OWEN:

'Oh! Jesus Christ! I'm hit,' he said;

and died.

Whether he vainly cursed or prayed

indeed,

The Bullets chirped-In vain, vain,

vain!

Machine-guns chuckled,-Tut-tut!

Tut-tut!

And the Big Gun guffawed.

Another sighed,-'O Mother, -

Mother, - Dad!'

Then smiled at nothing, childlike,

being dead.

And the lofty Shrapnel-cloud

Leisurely gestured,-Fool!

And the splinters spat, and tittered.

1. How has Owen used personification in

―The Last Laugh?‖

2. What are the feelings behind the last

words of the soldiers in ―The Last

Laugh?‖

3. Who/What has ―The Last Laugh‖ in

the poem?

4. Looking through the words of ―The

Last Laugh‖ how would you speak of

the death of these three soldiers?

What feelings would you experience?

STILL - Manuscript 'My Love!' one moaned. Love-

languid seemed his mood,

Till slowly lowered, his whole face

kissed the mud.

And the Bayonets' long teeth

grinned;

Rabbles of Shells hooted and

groaned;

And the Gas hissed.

STOCK – Bells

ringing. Armistice

celebration.

JON STALLWORTHY:

…as the bells were ringing for the armistice in

Shrewsbury where his parents lived,… …their

front doorbell rang bringing the telegram saying

that he was killed,

LT. GENERAL LENNOX:

I think Wilfred Owen is


INTEVIEW – Lt.

General Lennox

probably the archetype of a poet who comes in

with a romantic feeling and just recoils at that

horror and probably writes the best war poetry

of World War One.

How was it that Owen leaves his romantic

feeling about war and becomes one of the

greatest writers of war poetry?

INTERVIEW – Jon

Stallworthy

… I don‘t think there‘s another poet of the

Great War to equal him.

Does this change relate to his bearing

witness to the war? If so, how?

STILL – Owen’s

original manuscript

SUPER

STILL - Owen

WILFRED OWEN:

…true Poets must be truthful.

ACT 4

DOCUMENTARY –

A small group of

shivering Poets

crosses the street to

the White House.

There is a banner for

―Poets Against the

War.‖

EMILY WARN:

On the day that the symposium was supposed

to happen, on February 12th,

If you were in the position of Sam Hamill

or Emily Warn how would you have

responded to the White House invitation?

DOCUMENTARY-

Emily Warn in front of

the White House with

other poets.

I organized a group of poets from the

Washington, D.C. area.

Why might the White House have

cancelled the event?

INTERVIEW – Emily

Warn

I began just with one poet, who called another

poet, who called another poet.

DOCUMENTARY –

Emily Warn

It is our hope and conviction that the true

American voice conveyed in part and without

historical precedent by the poets of this country

may help to avert a disaster of tragic

proportions.

INTERVIEW – Emily

Warn

So we gathered in front of the White House to

read our poems. It was an extremely cold,

windy day. Some very distinguished poets from

Washington joined us.

DOCUMENTARY –

Bundled up in down

jackets, poets recite

their work. The

conditions are

adverse.

We felt that it was important that, even

though the symposium had been cancelled,…

INTERVIEW-Emily

Warn

that we raise our voices in front of the White

House…

DOCUMENTARY-

Stanley Plumly

STANLEY PLUMLY:

―Vigil for comrades swiftly slain, vigil and never


TITLE – Stanley

Plumly

forget how his day brightened, I rose from my

chill ground and folded my soldier well in his

blanket and buried him where he fell.‖

DOCUMENTARY -

New York city - Avery

Fisher Hall. Night.

JONATHAN SCHELL:

…it was a very snowy night. There were

something like two feet of snow on the ground

at that time, and they got several thousand

people to come and listen to poets read their

poems…

INTERVIEW –

Jonathan Schell

it was a very lively and feisty atmosphere…

DOCUMENTARY –

inside Avery Fisher

Hall. Andre Gregory

is the host. Audience

cheers.

TITLE – Andre

Gregory

ANDRE GREGORY:

All of you here tonight on this beautiful snowy

evening. Welcome to Poets Not Fit for the

Whitehouse.

DOCUMENTARY –

Sam Hamill at the

microphone.

SAM HAMILL:

This poem is called – ―Sheepherder Coffee.‖

I used to like sheepherder coffee,

a cup of grounds in my old

enameled pot,

then three cups of water and a fire,

and when it's hot, boiling into froth,

a half cup of cold water

to bring the grounds to the bottom.

It was strong and bitter and good

as I squatted on the riverbank,

under the great redwoods, all those

years ago.

Some days, it was nearly all I got.

I was happy with my dog,

and cases of books in my funky

truck.

But when I think of that posture

now,

I can't help but think

of Palestinians huddled in their

ruins,

the Afghan shepherd with his

bleating goats,

the widow weeping, sending off her

sons,

the Tibetan monk who can't go

How is it the good, peaceful moments

return to you as you think about events

that are unpleasant?

1. What is the significance of the act of

―squatting‖ in this poem? Who is

squatting?

2. What emotion does this poem invoke

in you?


home.

There are fewer names for coffee

than for love. Squatting, they drink,

thinking, waiting for whatever

comes.

DOCUMENTARY –

Saul Williams

SAUL WILLIAMS:

Your angry god

Craving the sacrifice of virgin

generations

Sons degenerate

Your holy books written in red ink

on burning sands

Your prayers between rounds do no

more than fasten the fate of your

children

To the hammered truth of your

trigger

A truth that mushrooms its

darkened cloud over the rest of us

So that we too bear witness

To the shortlived fate

Of a civilization that worships a

male god

1. Who are the virgin generations

that Williams refers to in his

poem?

2. What is the significance of holy

books being written in red ink?

What does red ink usually imply?

3. What is Williams saying about the

prayers that are being said?

4. How do we bear witness to this

picture that Williams offers in his

poem?

5. What is the significance of

Williams claiming that we worship

a male god? Would the situation

be different if we thought of god

as a female or as andrynous?

DOCUMENTARY –

Arthur Miller ARTHUR MILLER:

We have to stop speaking in codes. Collateral

damage is code for 1000‘s of people being

killed who are powerless to change their rulers.

1. What is meant by collateral damage?

2. What was the intent of Miller’s

comment?

DOCUMENTARY –

Marie Howe

MARIE HOWE:

Six lines by a hero of mine. He‘s a visionary.

His name is Cameron Penny and he is in the

fourth grade. He is… amazing… he‘s in the

fourth grade in a Michigan school. Cameron

Penny wrote this. He said:

―If you are lucky in this life

A window will appear on a

battlefield between two armies

And when the soldiers look into the

window

They don‘t see their enemies

They see themselves as children

And they stop fighting

And go home and go to sleep.

When they wake up, the land is well

again

1. Why does Howe call Cameron Penny

a visionary?

2. How are poets visionaries?

DOCUMENTARY –

Terry Tempest

Williams.

TERRY TEMPEST WILLIAMS:

This poem that I‘m going to read next was

submitted to the website by Pamela Hale.

DOCUMENTARY-

Pamela Hale at

As far as we know her first published poem.

She‘s 35 years old,


computer typing.

DOCUMENTARY –

Terry Tempest

Williams.

from Houston, Texas and she writes

DOCUMENTARY-

Pamela Hale at

computer typing.

―I‘m an ordinary person from an ordinary

place.‖

PAMELA HALE:

I wanted it to be understood that

INTERVIEW –

Pamela Hale

it wasn't just crazy left-wing people who were

against the war. And it wasn't just people who

were, you know, were activists or people who

had an agenda or something. It was ordinary

people in ordinary places.

How has Hale personalized the Iraqi War

in her poem? What are your opinions

about this personalization?

DOCUMENTARY –

Terry Tempest

Williams recites

Pamela Hale’s poem.

I‘m sorry that your mom was killed

When a missile struck your home

You were only three, and innocent.

Your mother too was innocent.

What is the enormity of loss to the young

Iraqi child whose mother was killed?

DOCUMENTARY –

Pamela Hale is walking

on the beach.

That missile came in my name,

Paid for by my tax dollars.

I was against the bombing, but

Not registered to vote,

Afraid to make a stand.

1. What accusation is Hale making in her

poem?

2. What are the comparisons that the

poet uses in her poem?

STILL – Pamela

Hale’s daughter with

her mom.

I have a daughter, about your age.

She is beautiful and strong.

Her mother is here, her father

there,

How is Hale’s daughter an inspiration for

her?

STILL - Pam’s

daughter at Christmas.

But her home has never been

bombed.

DOCUMENTARY –

Pamela Hale walks on

the beach.

She makes fliers to pass out at

school.

―no one should have to die for oil.‖

She scares her teachers and school

counselor.

She is too young to vote.

But not afraid to make a stand.

What might Hale’s feelings be about her

daughter’s actions expressed in the poem?

DOCUMENTARY –

Terry Tempest

Williams is reading.

This time I will not stand idly by

While politicians propagandize and

Big corporations divvy up the booty

In advance. No.

DOCUMENTARY –

Pamela Hale

This time I will make my voice

heard,

Say the things I couldn‘t say

before,

Support my daughter and the

others when

They stand against another unjust

war.

What about this poem resonates for you

and for what reason?

STOCK - Bomb bay JON STALLWORTHY:


is open and bombs

tumble down towards

a distant city – it could

be in England or in

Germany. Civilians

dead on ground.

Increasingly in the Second World War – with

total war – you get the impact on civilians…

…from the First World War

How has war changed through the years

and continues to change?

INTERVIEW – Jon

Stallworthy

with its dominant image of the trench, you

move to the Second World War which, if it has

a comparable image, is the image of the fire

from heaven, the bomb.

Who are the majority of today’s causalities

of war in countries like Iraq and

Afghanistan?

STOCK – Cities

burn. Night bombing,

London blitz.

LT. GENERAL LENNOX

…There was a dehumanizing that was going

on.

INTERVIEW – Lt.

General Lennox

In fact, some of the poems go back to the

pilots when they are resting back in England

and they are reflecting on what they have

done, the horrors of what they have done.

If you were an fighter pilot and had

returned from a ―successful‖ mission, what

would you be thinking?‖

STILL – Randall Jarell …Randall Jarrell in ―Losses‖ writes…

―We read our mail

DOCUMENTARY –

Lt. General Lennox

reads a poem by

Jarrell.

and counted up our missions – What is the significance of counting

missions?

STILL-Pilot on plane

―Barbara‖

In bombers named for girls, we

Burned

The cities we had learned about in

school

Why might these pilots decided to name

their bombers for girls?

DOCUMENTARY –

Lt. General Lennox

reads a poem by

Jarrell.

Till our lives wore out; our bodies

lay among

The people we had killed and never

seen.‖

What was the fate of many of the pilots

Jarrell writes of in his poem?

STOCK – Wide shot

Tinian Island, Bomb

being loaded onto the

Enola Gay.

TITLE – August 6,

1945

STOCK – Hiroshima

– shots of the bomb

and the mushroom

cloud.

STOCK –

Devastation of

Hiroshima after the

bomb had struck

JONATHAN SCHELL:

Hiroshima announced the possibility of the end

of the world.

Although it‘s true that many cities had been

destroyed by so-called conventional bombing

before Hiroshima

How was the dropping of the atomic bomb

a milestone in human warfare? How did

these acts change not only the course of

human history, but the make the world

more vulnerable?

INTERVIEW –

Jonathan Schell

and Nagasaki, it was impossible to imagine

previously that every city in the world


could be so destroyed. But the minute

Hiroshima was destroyed it became

perfectly obvious to every thinking person

that if one bomb could destroy one city,

then it wouldn’t take very many bombs to

destroy every city on earth. And indeed

during the Cold War, those numbers were

quickly achieved, and quickly surpassed.

STOCK – Atomic

bomb explodes –

beautiful and terrifying.

Title— (Tanka I)

In madness

a woman cries

―I left my child in the

flames.‖

Now all I have

Is my own life.

--Shoda Shinoe

SHODA SHINOE:

In madness

a woman cries

―I left my child in the flames.‖

Now all I have

Is my own life.

In ―Tanka (I)‖ how would you depict the

state of mind of the woman in whose voice

the poem is written? Why might she be

feeling as she does? What would be your

feelings if this poem represented an event

that happened to you?

STOCK – Hiroshima

is a city leveled.

Title—(Tanka II)

I wonder

If there is an operation

That removes

memories.

Where is a cure

For my pain filled

heart?

SHODA SHINOE:

I wonder

If there is an operation

That removes memories.

Where is a cure

For my pain filled heart?

1. How might making a wish as that

expressed in ―Tanka (II)‖ be helpful in

dealing with the sorrow experienced

by the poet?

2. What strikes you the most about

these two poems?

STOCK- Atomic

Bomb goes off.

STOCK – Atomic

bombs go off in every

type of location.

JONATHAN SCHELL:

You entered into the paradoxical situation that,

that the United

INTERVIEW –

Jonathan Schell

States and the other nuclear powers began to

rely for their safety, on the ability in retaliation

to absolutely annihilate the civilian population

of the other side.

When you talk about the ability to

annihilate a population does your concept

of war change?

STOCK – An atomic

bomb goes off.

…at the Strategic Air Command, they called it

―nation killing‖, which is a livelier phrase for

what we call genocide. At the same time, and

this is the paradox of the whole strategy, the

purpose of having that ability was to never

have to use it.

How is ―nation killing‖ a form of genocide?

How is ethnic cleansing a form of genocide?

INTERVIEW –

Jonathan Schell

…Once nuclear weapons were introduced into

the picture you could no longer settle your

political disputes with warfare because it simply

meant mutual annihilation. So the result was

paralysis. It was more than a revolution in

warfare. It was the end of warfare at that level,

simply the end of it.

If nuclear weapons can result in mutual

annihilation, how can/should we go about

solving the world’s problems?


STOCK – Wars

around the world.

CHRIS HEDGES:

Since the Second World War, war has largely

been against civilians… I mean there‘s roughly

three dozen wars going on around the globe at

any one time… Real images of war are

carefully sanitized.

What wars do you know are occurring

now? How many wars can you name that

have occurred in the last ten years?

STOCK – Civilians as

victims and soldiers

fighting with weapons.

…massive, powerful weapons of terror are

unleashed, not only on troops, but on civilians.

And that has become the characteristic of

modern warfare. … civilians are the primary

victims now of war… we don‘t hear enough

about war from the perspective

Who are the victims of these wars?

INTERVIEW – Chris

Hedges

of the victims. And the only way to understand

war is to understand it through the eyes of the

victims.

Why is Chris Hedges so intent on telling us

that the only way to understand war is

―through the eyes of the victims?‖

STOCK – War in

Columbia.

ANTONIETA VILLAMIL:

The conflict in Columbia started a very long

time ago, more than 50 years ago….

What initiated the conflict in Columbia

nearly 50 years ago? How often do we

know of wars, but not the causes? Why is

this so?

STILL – Pedro

Villamil

…I‘m very close to my brother. Pedro is his

name, Pedro Villamil… He just went out one

day, like anybody else, never came back.

INTERVIEW –

Antonieta Villamil

… going back to Columbia after the

disappearance of my brother, was not only

asking about my brother Pedro but it was

asking, oh, where is Julietta? Where is

Chaparro, where is Juan, where is Maria,

where is Marlene, where is – I was afraid to

ask.

Why is ―disappearing‖ people used so

frequently in conflicts and wars? What

does it do to those left behind? What does

it do to protest movements?

STILL – Pedro

Villamil

…we realized it was just a whole generation.

… in that poem- ― My name is Pedro‖

INTERVIEW-

Antonieta Villamil

he becomes a symbol of all the people

disappeared in Central and South American

countries.

DOCUMENTARY –

Antonieta Villamil

―Letter to the Brother that Went to War. ..‖

What can I tell you, dear brother?

Mutilated in silence

You disappeared as so many of

my brothers

With rigorous synchronicity.

The dripping of the clock

Coagulates my eyes.

Between brows and eye corner

glances,

I keep an ash that repels the fire

That doesn‘t find your bones.

A tomb I know by heart

Butchers my hands.

With the only effort I have left

I write these lines

While outside and around us

1. What is the war that Villamil speaks of

in the poem?

2. What does Villamil mean when she

refers to the disappearance of her

brother and others ―with rigorous

synchronicity?‖

3. What does it mean that Villamil’s

hands are butchered by a tomb? What

does the tomb represent?

4. How can Villamil respond to her

brother’s disappearance?

5. What responsibility does Villamil take

for her brother’s disappearance and

the disappearance of others?


Everything collapses

And bleeds.

STOCK – Protests

against the war.

Seattle and London.

TITLE – February,

2003

TODD SWIFT:

…there was a moment when it felt like maybe

poets and the millions of people marching in

the street might have an impact. … it was a

very heady time in that way as well… not only

personally but seeing friends and colleagues

and comrades around the world coming

together and actually making a difference.

Is it important to join protests and causes?

Why?

INTERVIEW – Todd

Swift

…what happened is that we presented for

history a record of bearing witness, and of

standing up to authority. And we proved that

at a critical time in Western Civilization‘s

history there are still millions of people with a

conscience, who don‘t think that wars need to

be fought unless they‘re absolutely necessary.

When Swift talks about the importance of

protest being recorded for history, and

being a record of bearing witness, what

does him mean? Is this bearing witness

similar to what Owen felt?

STOCK – Massive

attack on Iraq.

American and British

air power is supreme.

Night vision rockets.

TITLE – INVASION

OF IRAQ 2003

INTERVIEW – Craig

White

CRAIG WHITE:

Two soldiers were killed. One had his head

blown off. The other one had a big hole in his

side. One guy was actually blown right out of

his vehicle. The other one pretty much was

killed and splattered over the rest of the

people that were in his truck…

If pictures of war were not sanitized by the

media and censors do you think we would

be more outraged by the results of war?

Why or why not?

STOCK – Heavy

fighting at the

intersection, night

vision through scope.

We're surrounded. Fire's coming from all sorts

of directions, …and we all thought we might

not make it out of here. It looked very, very

close…

INTERVIEW-Craig

White

I saw soldiers running into these burning trucks

full of ammunition popping off. These are

tank rounds. These are large scale

ammunition, much of it radioactive. It's

depleted uranium. But when it burns, it cooks

off and you've got radiation going up into the

air,

How is it that soldiers risk their lives to

save fellow soldiers? Does it have

something to do with what Jonathan Shay’s

claims that in combat men become each

other’s mothers?

STOCK – Soldiers

jumping into burning

trucks.

Civilian in war.

everywhere. And this is a few hundred feet

away from me. People actually running into

these burning trucks trying to save them.

Innocent families who were trying to get out of

a war-type situation, trying to flee, trying to get

to a safer place,

INTERVIEW – Craig

White

would get caught in the middle of a battle, and

they always lost. They always got blown up.

INTERVIEW – Paul

Mysliwiec

PAUL MYSLIWIEC:

My priority was making sure my guys got home

1. As a warrior in charge to whom do


safe. You know, my priority was not making

100% sure that every engagement was clean

and I never got in trouble, whether or not it

cost, you know, my guys life or limb. My

decision-making process was - Are these guys

threatening my men? Maybe? You know.

Well, you gotta, you gotta protect the force.

you think your first duty?

2. Do Mysliwiec’s comments surprise

you? If so, how? What are the

implications in what he is saying?

STOCK – Searching

cars and guarding

children in Iraq.

CRAIG WHITE:

In modern warfare, as I saw in Iraq, people

don't die like they do in television or the

movies.

What reactions do you have to modern

warfare?

INTERVIEW – Craig

White

You don't see people get hit with a weapon,

have a big red spot and fall down. People

explode. Arms come off.

Can anyone be a winner in such a

circumstance?

STOCK- Dead

people with blown off

arms.

Heads come off. Torsos are severed. They just

explode.

ACT 5

STOCK – Tank rolls

over picture of

Saddam Hussein.

GEORGE W. BUSH:

My fellow Americans, major combat operations

in Iraq have ended.

STOCK – President

Bush speaks on the

USS Abraham Lincoln,

aircraft carrier, May 1,

2003. Crowd

applause follows his

remarks.

…the United States and our allies have

prevailed.

STOCK – Building

exploding at night,

view of Baghdad at

night.

DOCUMENTARY –

British funeral on

carrier.

RACHEL BENTHAM:

―News from Iraq.‖

DOCUMENTARY -

Rachel Bentham

recites ―News from

Iraq.‖

Mars‘ bloodshot gaze

considers the ‗peace‘ –

more soldiers killed

than during the war.

1. In ―News from Iraq,‖ what is meant by

―Mars’ bloodshot gaze?‖

2. What is the contradiction in News from

Iraq?

STOCK – American

wounded in Iraq,

burning trucks.

PAUL MYSLIWIEC:

…the suicide bombing, the mortars out of the

back of pickup trucks

INTERVIEW – Paul

Mysliwiec

instead of regular, you know, track vehicles.

Those are all things that make it harder for me

to distinguish who‘s the bad guy. And that

made it very tense for, for everybody. On top

of the fact that, that four guys in our battalion

had been destroyed by a car bomb by some,

you know, guy asking for help in a taxi cab,

really put us on edge the whole time.

Why is it that individuals revert to suicide

bombing?

STOCK – Americans


police Iraq. Statue of

Saddam falls.

DOCUMENTARY –

Baghdad through car

window

INTERVIEW –

Hashim Shafiq

HASHIM SHAFIQ:

I am happy of course. Very happy that

Saddam Hussein is gone.

How might Hashim Shafiq’s reaction to

Hussein being gone, be similar to many

Iraqis?

DOCUMENTARY -

Cafe

Because I am back among and friends, writers,

poets, and artists whom I have not seen for a

very long time.

INTERVIEW –

Hashim Shafiq

My experience with the past regime was

terrible indeed. Like the fascists in Germany

How was Saddam Hussein’s regime

crippling to many Iraqis?

DOCUMENTARY -

Cafe

the secret police burned my books, my

pictures,

INTERVIEW –

Hasham Shafiq

and my poetry.

STOCK – Saddam

Hussein

This poem about the killer of Iraq. About

Saddam Hussein. And about my country.

About Iraq.

INTERVIEW –

Hasham Shafiq

―A man walks by

Trips on his shadow

Thinking it was stone.

A lady walks by

Leans down to pick up a star

Thinking she found some money.

Poetry comes upon words

Painting them with color and

decorating them with beads.

A killer comes upon Iraq,

Thinking that he can plunge it

like a sword, wherever he

pleases.‖

1. The man, the lady, poetry and a

killer—what do they have in common

in this poem?

2. What is being said about poetry in

Shafiq’s poem?

3. What is truth in this poem? What is

disillusionment?

4. Who is the killer? What is the nature

of the killer?

DOCUMENTARY -

Cafe

INTERVIEW – Ali

Habash

ALI HABASH:

Life in Iraq after the occupation is becoming

worse.

STOCK – Injured

Iraqis. Angry Iraqi

demonstrations.

Americans policing

Iraq.

What happened is that the American army

didn‘t just destroy Saddam‘s regime but

destroyed the Iraqi government which was

established in 1921.

How can we respond to Ali Habash’s claim

that the Iraqi government was destroyed by

the U.S. Army?

INTERVIEW – Ali

Habash

We used to hear a long time ago that

Americans never had a civilization. That they

were just

STOCK – Americans

and Iraqis shooting.

cowboys.

INTERVIEW – Ali

Habash

But when we saw them here in Iraq and were

able to communicate with them, we found out

that they have no sense of civilization. That

Why might Habash’s feeling of Americans

be justified in his eyes?


they really are just cowboys. And very

disorganized people.

STOCK – Rockets

fire.

INTERVIEW – Ali

Habash

―Rockets Destroying a Happy Family‖

Rockets fill my heart and head

Time is running by

All your friends are being blamed

for this, Oh Iraq.

These are our dreams

Barbed wire crowds the streets

and people are entangled by it and

get lost in between.

I tried to slip through all this

chaos.

I saw a family trying to climb a

truck

and I saw a child with eye full of

tears behind a tank

and I saw a coffin waiting beside

the Euphrates bank.

Life has no meaning anymore.

Just tons of metal and iron

Are all these arms just for me,

For my children, my old home?‖

1. Have you seen pictures of rocket

attacks or heard their deafening noise?

How do you think you would feel in

being in the middle of an attack? What

would it do you physically? Mentally?

2. Who is blaming whom for this

destruction?

3. What is being implied by the dream?

4. What emotion does this poem instill in

you? What emotion do you think is

being felt by the poet?

5. What answer do you think the poet

expects to get for the question he

raises in the poem? What do you

believe is the answer?

STOCK – Corpses

in an Iraq in chaos.

Dead baby.

CHRIS HEDGES:

What war is about is the

INTERVIEW – Chris

Hedges

glorification of death. Death of the comrade,

death for the country, sacrifice for the nation,

paying

Comment on Hedges’s idea that ―war is

about the glorification of death.‖

STOCK- Faces of

soldiers in Iraq.

the ultimate sacrifice …once we have

sacrificed all for the god of war,

INTERVIEW – Chris

Hedges

we become in the service of death, not life and

that ultimately is what war demands of us.

INTERVIEW –

David Connolly

DAVID CONNOLLY:

It‘s called ―Food for Thought‖

―They moved in unison

like dancers in a ballet,

the spider, 20 inches from my rifle, the

Vietcong, 20 feet farther out,

in line,

each slowly sliding a leg forward. I let the man

take one more step

so as not to kill the bug."

What I tried to do there was to give you this

vision of looking down my rifle, you know, and

1. What was going through Connolly’s

mind as he looked down his rifle?

2. How would you describe the poet’s

emotions at this moment in time?

3. Why are these seconds in Connolly’s

life so important?

4. What is he saying about himself in this

poem? What meaning is evidence of

this by the title?

5. How is it that this poem can tell you in

just a few lines more about what is

happening on the battlefield than a

descriptive paragraph might convey?


give you the feeling of how hard-hearted I was

at the time, that I could put this spider's life up

above this, really, my contemporary, you know?

He may have been my enemy, but I'm sure he

was a 19-year-old kid, too, you know?

INTERVIEW – Craig

White

…I think combat is a one-way door. When

someone is in that and witnesses it and

participates in it, especially, I think you never

come back. I don't think you possibly can.

You're altered.

According to White when you witness war

or participate in it, you are never the same.

What does this mean for the thousands

upon millions of people who have bore

witness?

STOCK – War in

Iraq

CHRIS HEDGES:

If you look at human history war has been part

of our landscape from the beginning.

STOCK – American

military might

We as a country are the largest arms

exporters on the face of the earth. We export

two or three times more weapons than all the

other countries combined. And flooding

countries that lack stability with weapons are a

major cause of the prolonged conflicts that

countries have been suffering from for years…

There are many powerful institutions and

forces at work

1. What are your feelings about

exporting weapons?

2. How does the export of weapons

contribute to numerous global wars?

3. Who is responsible for weapons

exportation?

4. How does the impersonal nature of

modern war almost seem as if these

arms have no ―real‖ destination?

STOCK – War

around the world.

behind the scenes, beyond public scrutiny that

bear a great deal of responsibility for the

horrific blood letting that has been going on

and continues to go on in various parts of the

globe that we very rarely focus on or

acknowledge.

INTERVIEW – Chris

Hedges

…the ethnic wars of the 20th Century were

primarily wars against civilians. There‘s little

fighting between the combatants.

Given that civilians are the primary victims

of war today what should be our thinking

about war?

STOCK – Civilian

victims of war.

Civilians in modern war serve as either victims

or adjuncts of the war effort, civilians are

pawns and seen as kind of a collateral in war

time.

STOCK –Starving

children in Biafra.

…over the course of time the government of

Nigeria changed tactics and began to use

hunger as a way to win the war…And all the

planes that brought in food and medical

supplies were being shot down… They were

killing all the red cross officials.

What other forms of war exist besides

using arms? How effective are these

means?

INTERVIEW – Chris

Abani

CHRIS ABANI:

So essentially what happened is that the

Biafrans began to starve to death. And in the

process of that three year war over three

million children starved to death and have been

accounted for. We can‘t begin to talk about

the bodies that have never been found.

DOCUMENTARY –

Chris Abani

―Stabat Mater‖

Through gaps in trees, moonlight

The term Stabat Mater comes from a

Medieval Latin hymn that speaks of Mary‘s

sorrows on viewing the crucifixion of her son,


veins night with the remembrance

of

dawn. Among ferns stubbling the

forest

floor a mother squats, watching the

child in

her arms losing its grip on life,

it‘s hacking breath, a suffering

hanging on.

gently she closes her eyes as her

fingers

pincer its nose and mouth,

easing the passage across.

Jesus.

1. How does this poem speak to the

sorrows of the mother as she holds

her child? How does this event

compare to that of Mary at the site of

the crucifixion?

2. What importance does ―dawn‖ play in

this scene?

3. What might be the mother’s feelings as

she squats in the forest with her child

in her arms?

4. How does the mother react to her

dying child? What does she do to ease

its suffering? What opinion do you

have of this act?

5. What ―details‖ might the mother be

left with at the death of her child?

STOCK – Iraqi

victims of war; Antoon

reads, ―Wars I‖

SINAN ANTOON:

When I was torn by war

i took a brush

immersed in death

and drew a window

on war‘s wall

1. What is the significance of what the

speaker in the poem is seeing? What

does he have to say about war?

2. How does the poet use metaphor in

his work?

3. What is the meaning of the title of this

poem?

DOCUMENTARY –

Sinan Antoon

i opened it

searching for

something

But

i saw another war

and a mother

weaving a shroud

for the dead man

still in her womb

What feeling does the poem convey to

you? What is the vision held in the poem?

INTERVIEW - Sinan

Antoon

We live in a very bleak world so that‘s how it

affects me personally. And, you know, you

can‘t escape it in a way. And it‘s very bloody.

And the bloodiness is showing in the writing

and in the tone, a very, very sad tone.

What is the vision that the speaker of this

poem has?

STOCK – American

soldiers in Iraq and

funeral

DOCUMENTARY –

David Connolly

DAVID CONNOLLY:

―Wearing Faces‖

Stand-down, guard duty on the

bunker line,

weed rapping about the last

operation.

What does Connolly’s poem say about the

human condition? About being and acting

like men?


And someone said

you remember when that little dude got blown

away in the shit storm of

r.p.g.s?

Then someone cried

and none of us could hold it.

And for awhile afterwards,

it seemed easier for us to act like we were

men.

INTERVIEW –

David Connolly

…poetry became one of the ways that I tried

to sort things out in my head to try to stay

sane, to try to make some sense out of what

was going on around me. And once I got home

it became even more so. If something woke

me up in the middle of the night, some

remembrance of a man's death or whatever, I

would sit and I'd think about it. And I'd write

about it.

How is writing a form of therapy? How

does it help to get our thoughts out and

enable us to reflect on them?

STOCK – Vietnam

War, wounded

soldiers.

And I'd try to almost exorcise the ghost… And

if you can do that, you not only

INTERVIEW –

David Connolly

create something that's better than this terrible

remembrance, you also bring some credit and

some justice and some remembrance to these

men who died. And these things that

happened.

How does writing about an event and the

people that were a part of it bring about

recognition? Why is it important to have

this remembrance honored?

DOCUMENTARY –

Todd Swift recites a

poem.

TODD SWIFT:

Men and women are small

When bullets are put inside them.

They lie down like stones.

All the bodies lying on the ground.

Like children throwing glass at

rain,

This could almost be strange new

fun.

Even when you are dead,

gentlemen,

No one will forget what you have

done.

1. What does the name of the poem

imply? Whose promise is being

invoked?

2. How is it that the size of a human can

be minimized when something as small

as a bullet enters the body?

3. When you hear this poem read out

loud what describe the image with

which you are left? What emotion are

you left with?

4. What is the significance of children

―throwing glass at rain?‖

5. Who is it that will not be forgotten?

6. What scars are you left with when you

think of war? What memories are you

left with? Whom do you blame for

war?

INTERVIEW – Todd

Swift

That‘s the power of poetry, is that it cuts

across time and space, it always exists. And it

can reverberate or resonate in different ways

for different people, at different moments in

time. We‘ve created those poems, they‘re still

out there, and they‘re available again next time


people want to go to war. We can remember

what we did this time, people can go back read

those poems again, and be inspired to do

more. Maybe next time we‘ll succeed, and

maybe next time we‘ll stop the war.

INTERVIEW –

Sampurna Chatterji

SAMPURNA CHATTARJI:

The language of war is overt, mechanical,

aggressive, out there. The language of poetry

is inward. It‘s searching. It‘s tentative. It‘s

hopeful and I think that‘s what makes poetry a

valid response at any time. But especially in

the time of war.

INTERVIEW – Emily

Warn

EMILY WARN:

…poetry allows us to exist in uncertainty. To

heal as a result of listening to a poem doesn‘t

mean that you sew everything up and it‘s all

rosy and you feel consoled. It‘s that you

somehow are then given strength to then exist

with the uncertainty that anything could and

might happen.

INTERVIEW – Chris

Hedges

FADE OUT

CHRIS HEDGES:

So I can remember standing in the rain over a

mud puddle and drinking this water the color

of coffee, which was turning my own guts

inside out, and seeing a young woman with her

two small children drinking out of the same

puddle. And I knew what that water had done

to me and knew very well what that water

would do to these kids. And I stood over them

and recited in English (not a language anyone

around me understood), W. H. Auden‘s

―Epitaph on a Tyrant,‖ which is…

―Perfection, of a kind, was what he

was after,

And the poetry he invented was

easy to understand;

He knew human folly like the back

of his hand,

And was greatly interested in

armies and fleets;

When he laughed, respectable

senators burst with laughter,

And when he cried the little

children died in the streets.‖

1. Define the use of the word ―epitaph‖

and ―tyrant‖ as used in the title of this

poem.

2. What type of perfection might the

tyrant be seeking?

3. How is the tyrant in the poem seen as

being human?

4. Why is tyranny so frightening?

5. How is a tyrant absolute?

6. How does this poem exemplify

perfection?

7. In another poem, Auden wrote: ―But

time is always guilty. Someone must

pay for our loss of happiness, our happiness

itself." How might these lines pertain

to war? How do they reflect life in

general?

TITLE - Poem

―History says, Don’t hope

On this side of the grave.

But then, once in a lifetime

The Cure of Troy is Seamus Heaney’s

version of Sophocles’ Philoctetes.

How might the verse above represent a


The longed-for tidal wave

Of justice can rise up

And hope and history rhyme.

Seamus Heaney

(based on Sophocles)

conflict between a person’s personal and

moral belief? How does it represent a

symbolic call?

THE END 1. As you contemplate what you have

seen in the film, Voices in Wartime,

what resounds most profoundly in

your thinking and emotions?

2. What immediate thoughts do you want

to be voiced?

3. What questions do you feel need to be

answered?

4. What comments would you like to be

made?

The Script and Discussion Questions for Voices in...

Documents

Transcript of The Script and Discussion Questions for Voices in...