First Iraq-war poem?

February 12, 9:40 AMDenver Literary ExaminerRobert Schwab

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Discovered a new poet in the February issue of Poetry.

Kevin C. Powers is described as a first-time contributor to the magazine and a "poet, writer and a veteran of the Iraq war."

Powers' poem, "Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting," is the first war poem I've seen come out of the Iraq disaster. It's short and bitter:

Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting

I tell her I love her like not killing
or ten minutes of sleep
beneath the low rooftop wall
on which my rifle rests.

I tell her in a letter that will stink,
when she opens it,
of bolt oil and burned powder
and the things it says.

I tell her how Pvt. Bartle says, offhand,
that war is just us
making little pieces of metal
pass through each other.
 

I have not paid Kevin C. Powers for copying his poem from Poetry into the Examiner.

But you can repay him, for his war service and his poem, by finding more of his poetry some place where you do have to pay for it.