Some information about the author:
Steve Carlsen was born and lives in Dowagiac Michigan. He joined the United States Army in October 2000 and went to Infantry Basic Training, and Airborne School in Ft. Benning Georgia. He then reported to D Company 1st battalion 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment. 82nd Airborne Division in Ft. Bragg North Carolina.
He deployed to Kosovo in November 2001 as part of peacekeeping operations. He Deployed to Afghanistan in of December 2002 where he participated in combat operations. He was honorably discharged from the Army in 2003. He currently attends Southwestern Michigan College where his professor, Dr Michael Collins challenged him to write about his experiences.
Point of view
The author is very likely to be someone who has experienced a war as his description of the war is very good and can only be from someone who had experienced the war and knows a lot about wars. For example, he knew that it would be noisy, which can be seen from “The noise is tremendous, terror I can’t define”, and also that they would have to sleep with their boots on, which can be seen from “We slept with our boots on so we were always prepared”. There are also many other examples.
Situation and setting
The war was at Kindu Hush, near mountains, which can be seen from” Those majestic mountains so steep, so high they kiss the skies” and “The Hindu Kush has changed so many lives”.
Language/Diction
We can see from the first line “they unloaded the dead and maimed right before our eyes.” that the author’s comrades were being maimed and we can infer from this that the author and his comrades had lost the battle and was one of the lucky ones to have escaped and survived.
Also, we can see from “We fought from the valleys to the mountain peaks, from house to cave, to car to creek, Dirty and tired and hungry and scared, we slept with our boots on so we were always prepared” that the author and his comrades had fought really hard even though they were losing the battle. They were determined to escape although it was nearly impossible because they were outnumbered. It also shows that they have fought for quite a long time.
Conclusion
This poem is a good one as it is so descriptive that it really makes and helps me to create and imagine a scene in my mind of what the author is going through although I am only the one reading his poem, not the one experiencing what he had experienced. Also, the content is interesting and realistic, making it one of the best poems I have ever read.
