by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator
Today is Veteran's Day, the 101st anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I, the war that was intended to end wars forever. Sadly, it did not. A mere two decades later the world was on the brink of the second major prolonged and devastating conflict of the twentieth century: World War II.
Author and novelist Kurt Vonnegut was born on this day in 1922, exactly four years after the Armistice was signed in France. Vonnegut served in the U.S. army during World War II, and he was captured by the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge. He and other prisoners were locked in concrete bunkers three stories below a slaughterhouse in Dresden, Germany. In 1945 Allied Forces led by the U.S. firebombed the city of Dresden, killing most of the city's population. The young servicemen incarcerated beneath the slaughterhouse survived and emerged to witness the remains of hell on earth.
Vonnegut, who went on to become a truly distinctive voice in American literature, held a regular job after the war and helped his wife raise six children - but his passion was writing. He penned short stories and science fiction novels to very limited success, but then in the mid-1960s he began writing what many consider to be his masterpiece. Slaughterhouse Five told the story of Billy Pilgrim, a young man who becomes "unstuck" in time, floating among various significant points in his life, and during that fantasy voyage Vonnegut's take on the fire-bombing of Dresden gets told. He provided the world with a view of war that few had seen.
My first experience reading the works of Kurt Vonnegut was when The Sirens of Titan was assigned in a college class on "Science Fiction Literature." I was so taken with his talent and unique voice that I made it a personal goal to read all of his major works - books like Cat's Cradle, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, Player Piano, and of course Slaughterhouse Five - many of them multiple times. I have read enough Vonnegut that I feel certain I would recognize his most famous recurring character, Kilgore Trout, if I encountered him on the streets of West Plains!
In addition to being an exceptional novelist, Kurt Vonnegut also wrote at least one play - Happy Birthday, Wanda June - and several poems. Today's poetry selection, "Requiem" isn't about war, but it does involve something every bit as urgent: man's steady destruction of the earth. Vonnegut saw man's challenges to the earth as a war that humanity seemed destined to lose.
Requiem
by Kurt Vonnegut
When the last living thing
has died on account of us,
how poetical it would be
if Earth could say,
in a voice floating up
perhaps
from the floor
of the Grand Canyon,
“It is done.”
People did not like it here.
Poetry Appreciator
Today is Veteran's Day, the 101st anniversary of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I, the war that was intended to end wars forever. Sadly, it did not. A mere two decades later the world was on the brink of the second major prolonged and devastating conflict of the twentieth century: World War II.
Author and novelist Kurt Vonnegut was born on this day in 1922, exactly four years after the Armistice was signed in France. Vonnegut served in the U.S. army during World War II, and he was captured by the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge. He and other prisoners were locked in concrete bunkers three stories below a slaughterhouse in Dresden, Germany. In 1945 Allied Forces led by the U.S. firebombed the city of Dresden, killing most of the city's population. The young servicemen incarcerated beneath the slaughterhouse survived and emerged to witness the remains of hell on earth.
Vonnegut, who went on to become a truly distinctive voice in American literature, held a regular job after the war and helped his wife raise six children - but his passion was writing. He penned short stories and science fiction novels to very limited success, but then in the mid-1960s he began writing what many consider to be his masterpiece. Slaughterhouse Five told the story of Billy Pilgrim, a young man who becomes "unstuck" in time, floating among various significant points in his life, and during that fantasy voyage Vonnegut's take on the fire-bombing of Dresden gets told. He provided the world with a view of war that few had seen.
My first experience reading the works of Kurt Vonnegut was when The Sirens of Titan was assigned in a college class on "Science Fiction Literature." I was so taken with his talent and unique voice that I made it a personal goal to read all of his major works - books like Cat's Cradle, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, Player Piano, and of course Slaughterhouse Five - many of them multiple times. I have read enough Vonnegut that I feel certain I would recognize his most famous recurring character, Kilgore Trout, if I encountered him on the streets of West Plains!
In addition to being an exceptional novelist, Kurt Vonnegut also wrote at least one play - Happy Birthday, Wanda June - and several poems. Today's poetry selection, "Requiem" isn't about war, but it does involve something every bit as urgent: man's steady destruction of the earth. Vonnegut saw man's challenges to the earth as a war that humanity seemed destined to lose.
Requiem
by Kurt Vonnegut
When the last living thing
has died on account of us,
how poetical it would be
if Earth could say,
in a voice floating up
perhaps
from the floor
of the Grand Canyon,
“It is done.”
People did not like it here.
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