As human beings, we have the blessing and the curse that we're able to adapt to almost anything. No matter how extreme the circumstances you're in, they become normal.

Kevin Powers

Categorized in : Matter Blessing Normal

I had the feeling that if I encountered anyone they would intuit my disgrace and would judge me instantly. Nothing is more isolating than having a particular history. At least that's what I thought. Now I know: all pain is the same. Only the details are different.

pain judging feelings

There is a sharp distinction between what is remembered, what is... by Kevin Powers

There is a sharp distinction between what is remembered, what is told and what is true.

remembered distinction

I can't envision an honest war novel that left war in a positive... by Kevin Powers

I can't envision an honest war novel that left war in a positive light.

honest light war

There's something immediate about the experience of reading a poem. It makes sense in my own mind, but I'm trying to figure out a way to articulate it... It's like looking at a painting: you're able to take in the totality of the work all at once, and so processing whatever information that painting is giving you is almost secondary to simply apprehending what's in front of you.

reading mind giving

You want to fall, that's all. You think it can't go on like that. It's as if your life is a perch on the edge of a cliff and going forward seems impossible, not for a lack of will, but a lack of space. The possibility of another day stands in defiance of the laws of physics. And you can't go back. So you want to fall, let go, give up, but you can't. And every breath you take reminds you of that fact. So it goes.

giving-up letting-go fall

My personal opinion is that if someone writes honestly about war,... by Kevin Powers

My personal opinion is that if someone writes honestly about war, it will inherently be anti-war.

personal-opinions writing war

Noises and smells, those can bring back powerful memories. I remember when I was going to school one Fourth of July, and there were a lot of fireworks going off. I knew that I was in Richmond. I knew that I was a college student. But I thought people were shooting at me.

powerful memories school

In a lot of ways, the task at hand for any poem is to approach something that defies exactness or definition with a kind of exactness or precision.

kind

Writing was always an aspiration, but I'd kept it a secret even f... by Kevin Powers

Writing was always an aspiration, but I'd kept it a secret even from myself.

aspiration secret writing

Joining the military is not to be taken lightly. You're putting every part of yourself at risk, not just your body but your moral and spiritual centre.

taken military spiritual

There's something immediate about the experience of reading a poem - whether it's the music or some other element of it - that just seems to access another part of the brain. You know, Charles Olson talks about this transfer of energy that happens between the writer and the reader of the poem. I guess there's something essential to me about acknowledging upfront the immensity of it - the difficulty of it - and even allowing that to be the subject.

energy reading brain

It's not just: you get off the plane, you're back home, everything's fine. Maybe the physical danger ends, but soldiers are still deeply at risk of being injured in a different way.

risk soldier home

All choices are illusions, or if they are not illusions their strength is illusory, for one choice must contend with the choices of all the other men and women deciding anything in that moment.

illusion choices men

I guess I find the boundaries between poetry and prose to be some... by Kevin Powers

I guess I find the boundaries between poetry and prose to be somewhat permeable.

prose boundaries

There are definitely connections between poems, but I wanted each to stand on its own. I guess it goes back to the idea of trying to zoom in and out, and to modulate, so there are different ways of looking at any experience for the reader. Even having short poems and long poems - there has to be some kind of variation in the experience of reading as a whole.

reading trying long

I understood that 'The Yellow Birds' would be a peculiar representation of the experience of being at war. I intended it to be so.

yellow bird war

I'm always most interested in writing about things that I don't u... by Kevin Powers

I'm always most interested in writing about things that I don't understand.

writing

I've been writing poems and stories since I was about 13. by Kevin Powers

I've been writing poems and stories since I was about 13.

writing-poems stories writing

I think a diversity of expression can only be good, so I think the more that people write about their experience, use their imagination to deal with their experience, you know, I think that's going to be good for not only for those authors but also for people who are interested in trying to understand it.

writing people thinking

The male role models I had all seemed to have been in the military. My father served in the army. My uncle was in the Marine Corps. Both of my grandfathers served in WWII. There weren't any career soldiers in my family, but when I was young it seemed like a way of arriving at adulthood.

uncles military father