"You and I are Disappearing"
In class yesterday, we spent just about all of it discussing the poem "You and I are Disappearing" which was written in response to the iconic "Napalm Girl" photograph from the Vietnam War. (Warning: Cannot unsee.)
The dreamlike quality of the poem cut through my habitual responses in a way that the image could not. Photos are by definition records of things past. But the words have a visceral present-ness that brings home an echo of what it's like for something you've seen to never truly leave you.
It is masterful: I am haunted.
The dreamlike quality of the poem cut through my habitual responses in a way that the image could not. Photos are by definition records of things past. But the words have a visceral present-ness that brings home an echo of what it's like for something you've seen to never truly leave you.
It is masterful: I am haunted.