Ambush Moon
One of the reason why I chose this poem, is because it gives the reader a setting, and somewhat of a plot, but it doesn’t tell you what exactly happened. Partially is left up to the imagination. Reading through these poems leads me to believe that poetry is a channel to express more then just the grip that gore print in memories. It reflects the beauty and power of language which eases, or attempts to objectify the memories of the past. Mr. Lohere told us what actually happened that night, but the poem Ambush Moon doesn’t retell what actually happened, it gives us the setting the essence, the beautiful children, but it doesn’t tell us what happened to the beautiful children or the village. It leaves it up to the imagination, it hints to that there is something else to do but just arriving to the village, but it doesn’t tell us what happened. Excellent use of language, short and well written.
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Its so sad. It just sounds more criminal than anything. "they are beautiful,/ they are sleeping,/ let us wake them./ We have come/ 12,000 miles/ to find them." It doesnt tell what happens but it doesn't take much to figure out what did.
ReplyDeleteI feel that by the author not telling us what exactly happened causes us as readers to feel a different emotion than if he had told us what exactly happened.
ReplyDeletesometimes poems rely on the reader to know pretty well the context for a historical situation. we know ambush patrols in vietnam often ended in horror and our imagination does the rest, knowing no matter what in this poem the children are still innocent and beautiful and caught in the middle, whether they survive the ambush or not.
ReplyDeleteI think in some ways the poem is better off not telling you exactly what happened as then it becomes more personal, in the sense that it leaves you to depict what happened rather than from another's perspective. It is indeed a powerful price of writing .
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