Poems from the Iraq War by Brian Turner
This video includes six poems: “Here, Bullet,” “Hwy 1,” ”Eulogy,” “16 Iraqi Policemen,” “The Inventory from a Year Sleeping with Bullets” and “At Lowe’s Home Improvement Center,” taken from Brian Turner’s two books, Here, Bullet and Phantom Noise.
If I don’t post more poetry reading videos here, it’s because such videos are often poor quality (dark, out-of-focus, too quiet, etc.) and many poets don’t really know how to read their work. This video demonstrates how to do it right. In fact, the poems are so intense and so well read, I find I really don’t mind the utter minimalism of a single-camera close-up on the reader’s face. Neil Astley shot the video for Turner’s British publisher, Bloodaxe Books.
Brian Turner doesn’t appear to have a website, but here’s his Wikipedia page.
- About the Author
- Latest Posts
Dave Bonta is a poet, editor, and web publisher from the Appalachian mountains of central Pennsylvania.
HELL yeah – thanks for this. Amazing work, and I agree the minimalism works. (I admit to having never paid the slightest bit of attention to the visual aspects of recording a reading before, but I’m starting to do so since I’ve been playing with photography the past few months).
Wonderful–and yes, perfectly read in an understated way that ironically intensifies the power of the poems. All the drama, emotion, and power are in the poems. Of course, Turner also has the gift of a perfect voice, deep and resonant.