their hands, bodies by ahkos ahkos
This poem horrifies me. War should horrify me more than it does, but I do not see it; the same goes for death. This writer, however, does: he sees aftermath and tells of it in such a way that is almost unbearable. The language is simple. It does not condemn war or explain a fear of death with lofty terms because, really, that’s not how we understand it (if we understand it at all). Its simplicity, however, should not be mistaken for plainness; every aspect of this poem is very calculated, very thought-out; even the use of space between words and thoughts is used to sink the reader into a grey, silent, awful sort of trapped-in-your-own-head feeling. The repetition is sporadic but perfectly planned – it doesn’t sound like a writing mechanism; it just sounds the way a person’s thoughts would go if they were facing an ocean of bodies. It sounds like an oncoming panic attack, like the taste of almost being sick.
Wow, horrifying really is the word that comes to mind when I read this. I wonder who the author is. Ahkos Ahkos- lives in Boston. Do you think he was a soldier? Has he actually experienced what he is describing? If I were him, I would never want to make this stuff up.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing that came to my mind: hey, no capitalizations; that's just your style.
ReplyDeleteThe second thing that came to my mind: this is one of the most...real...things I've ever read; poetry or otherwise. It was like his horrified breathing was forced out of the reader by use of spacing.
It is amazing how poetry can be overlooked and oversimplified and most often the deepest messages are in the simplest poems. Your description makes the poem sound very reflective. If the writer was truly listing thoughts, then it would make sense that the poem would not be too detailed and tightly organized.
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