Awhile back I did a post on Turret Homes (click here) and received some nice feedback from various folks who enjoyed it. My friend Jane Sypher however, took me to a whole different place when she referred me to a poem that she used frequently in teaching her students. She noted how her students would respond with various interpretations of the poem and discussions about it.
Only 5 lines long, the poem is very powerful and thought provoking.
“The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”
The poem’s author Randall Jarrel offered the following explanation:
Thank you Jane for sending this my way!
As I have aged, I don’t why, but for some reason or other I have become very claustrophobic. I am not to the point where I won’t go in an elevator; but if it is half full of people when it opens for me to board it, I will simply wait to take the next one. The thought of being a ball gunner enclosed in that small a space gives me the heebie jeebies. (Ok, heebie jeebies may be a stretch, but I just threw that in as an excuse to pass this funny video along to you where these guys parody the Bee Gees. (Here’s betting that you can’t listen to it for the entire 3:29 minutes.)