Scenes of our youth…a summer evening
Balloons, excitement,
Parachute-lights soar upwards,
Howls and flashes terrific,
Light of the next star-shell luminous -
Everything is shimmering.
We sang soldier’s songs.
French bread, butter, jam, Edamer cheese
Water-bottles full of cognac.
Then,
Stillness on the horizon – sign of a bad time.
Black silhouettes of the forests,
White vapors creep
Strange Eyes…Death is hunting us down.
Arching shells begin to fall,
The attack has come.
We become wild beasts, like a circus -
Thugs, murderers, devils.
We destroy and kill to save ourselves and to be revenged.
We make annihilation.
Torn blasted earth, crashes, groans, shudders.
Arms thrown wide, mouths wide open;
Shattered souls
Silenced with a bomb.
One grave.
Found poem written by C. Madison,
fall 2008, with words and phrases from
chapter 6 of Erich Maria Remarque’s
All Quiet on the Western Front.
Cheryl A. Madison
Mrs. Madison
English 9H
2 February 2009
I created this Found Poem with words and phrases from the 6th chapter of Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front. During my 3rd reading of the chapter I highlighted images – words and phrases and a few sentences - that struck me or appealed to me. Remarque’s war descriptions of explosions and objects flying through the sky sounded to me like they could almost have been the entertainment we watch with excitement every Fourth of July. Yet he was describing death. That is why I began my Found Poem as if the soldiers were simply enjoying a picnic on a summer evening, singing, and watching fireworks. It seems to me that people who kill during war are just these same people. Somehow, evil overtakes humanity; somehow humanity joins in its own destruction. It seems like once we are on an evil path, the path just goes down steeply, and we can’t save ourselves. Meanwhile, the earth, sustainer of life, is wrecked. Then she must open up and become our grave.
The first stanza has many “light” words to set the scene of the poem – ”summer”, “lights”, “flashes”, “luminous”, “shimmering.” The second shows the men singing and eating. They are enjoying the light show. In the third, an ominous stillness and silhouettes appear, indicating that the worst evil moves in slowly and silently. I used black and white for imagery, and I personified death. The “strange eyes” represent my belief that evil has, unfortunately, some sort of life. When the attack comes in full (4th stanza), the soldiers join it, become a part of it. Perhaps this is inevitable. In the 5th and final stanza, everyone dies – the arms and mouths represent their bodies. But the soul, the most important part, is mentioned last, before the grave. The onomatopoeia adds realness to the event.
The last line, “One grave,” is obviously the earth. We will all end up in the same grave, and it ought to be a sacred place. War desecrates human bodies and souls. It desecrates mother earth, which our children still need. War makes foul the blessed grave that we all share.