The two poems that I have chosen are “Charlie Howard’s Descent” by Mark Doty and “Song of Napalm” by Bruce Weider. The reason I picked these two poems is because they touch a deep part of me.
With “Charlie Howard’s Descent”, it was about a man that never quite fit in society because he was gay and that he would come to learn to use the hurt full words and part of his life. “I, imagine he took the insults in/and made of them a place to live;/we learn to use the names/because they are there,/familiar furniture; faggot/was the bed he slept in, hard/and white, but simple somehow,/queer something sharp/but finally useful, a tool,/all the jokes a chair,/stiff-backed to keep the spine straight,/a table, a lamp.” (“Charlie Howard’s Descent”, Lines 21-32)
This poem is an example of what is wrong in the world. All the hate and misunderstandings that lead people to make decisions that not only affect their life but the person they are tormenting. A line that really touched be was “and blesses his killers/in the way that only the dead/can afford to forgive. (“Charlie Howard’s Descent”, Lines 52-54)
“Song of Napalm” is another example through poetry of what is wrong in the world. This poem is about a soldier having a flash back about an experience he can never forget. It was of a girl with napalm stuck to her and died because of it. “Still I close my eyes and see the girl/
Running from her village, napalm stuck to her dress like jelly,/Her hands reaching for the no one
Who waits in waves of heat before her….And the girl runs only as far/As the napalm allows/Until her burning tendons and crackling/Muscles draw her up/into that final position.” (Song of Napalm, lines 24-28 and 37-41) This poem again show what is going on over sea and what our soldiers have to go through and have to live with even after they are home with their families. Here and here are the two links for the whole poems if you would like to read them.
Work Cited:
Song of Napalm By Bruce Weigl http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171470
Charlie Howard's Descent http://www.angelfire.com/ca4/strawberry/descent.html
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