Poem Response

Times like Those Make Great Poems
I had a small majority of poems to choose from and I read them all and I found two that I understood and took to heart. They both were similar in the fact that they had something to do with war and they both didn’t flat out and explain their points. The first poem that caught my eye was Alicia Ostinker’s Daffodils because without me overanalyzing it I understood what the poet meant. I also liked Kevin Powers’ Letters composed during a lull in the fighting. His poem was short but it was just enough to make me agree and know what he was going through without him explaining.
Daffodils to me was a poem explaining how bad the war was and how precious the soldiers war. I thought that Ostinker was making a comparison between a flower and a human being. Not only soldiers I thought she was speaking of human kind too. To me it made me appreciate how beautiful people are no matter how different they are.
Powers’ poem seemed like it had nothing to say but it spoke a lot to me, for a moment I knew exactly what Powers was going through. To me, he seems like a man who is a relationship and he’s protecting it by telling nice lies. Those lies though are there to protect his lover from fear. He doesn’t want to tell his love how brutal the war really is because he knows it will only bring more heartache. I have caught myself several times in the same role as Powers and the lies aren’t there to hurt they are solely there to protect. I feel like the poet can relate to many people in a relationship because I feel like little white lies such as his are common. His poem was simple and petite but to me much more powerful than novel length poems.
I don’t have much in common with wars but like all people I do have an opinion and I do have remorse. These poets brought great inspiration to me and to seek out for the people who suffer from the war and their loved ones. I really enjoyed this assignment because it makes me think of what I normally avoid.