In our ASTU class we recently studied This Connection of Everyone with Lungs: Poems written by Juliana Spahr. Personally, I disliked the first poem which was written straight by Spahr straight after September 9/11 happened. However, the second poem which Spahr wrote as a process poem during the 2002 invasion of Iraq  managed to spark my interest.

I found Spahr’s second poem interesting as the idea of a process poem which is written everyday is new to me. The fact that Spahr is American but lived on the island of Hawaii at the time provides connection to the war but disconnection at the same time. In the poem she describes seeing things related to the war such as naval ships, which brings the reality of what was happening in Iraq to her backyard. On the other hand, Hawaii is very isolated and distant from the rest of the world, meaning that seeing those ships was as close as Spahr would get to the war.

The theme of Spahr’s poems in This Connection of Everyone with Lungs: Poems is directly stated in the title. I was particularly intrigued by her idea that everyone on Earth breathes the same air and is connected to each other whether we like it or not. It makes me question why humans act the way they do towards each other, from violence to acts of terrorism to torture the list goes on and on. As humans we are all connected, yet we choose to focus on the differences between us such as religion or skin color.

In her poem, Spahr acts as a witness to the events happening around her during the Iraq invasion. But at the end of the day, her life was only affected so much by the war. Spahr, and people like myself, live in a privileged world where we can go about our daily life and observe conflicts such as the Iraq War from a distance. We are all witnesses until we choose to act and make a difference in this world.

Works Cited:

Spahr, Juliana. This Connection of Everyone With Lungs: Poems. California: University of California             Press, 2005. Print.