2000 lbs., Poem by Iraq War Veteran Brian Turner

Soldier-Poet Brian Turner Reads his Popular Poetry on YouTube

Apr 27, 2009

The poem "2000 lbs" from the collection "Here, Bullet" is an account of a suicide bombing told from the perspectives of Iraqis, American soldiers, and the bomber himself.

2000 lbs. is the name of a narrative poem by Brian Turner about a suicide bombing at bustling Asher Square in Mosul, Iraq. The bomb explodes in a traffic circle, a predominate road feature in Iraq. One stanza is devoted to the bomber and evokes the omnipresence of death as Iraqis try to go about their daily lives: "And the man who triggered the button,/who may have invoked the Prophet's name,/ or not — he is obliterated at the epicenter,/he is everywhere, he is of all things..."

Brian Turner Captures the Experience of War

Turner captures the extreme experience of war by depicting grim details and the feelings they evoke: the pain of loss, disconnectedness, confusion and fear, the uncertainty of living in the presence of violence and death and the fierce longing for a normal life. By focusing on mundane details the scenes become alive in front of our eyes as in a movie. Asher Square in 2000 lbs. is a scene of unimaginable destruction:

"Still hanging in the air over Ashur Square,/the telephone line snapped in two, crackling/ a strange incantation the dead hear/ as they wander confused amongst one another,..."

"tires spin on the humvee flipped to its side,/ the gunner's hatch he was thrown from"

The Poem "2000 lbs." is Told From the Perspectives of Iraqis and Americans

A sergeant's eardrums have ruptured, he "speaks but cannot hear the words coming out ", a young Iraqi on a bicycle glimpses reflections of pedestrians in a storefront window, just before everything shatters, a civil affairs officer stares at his missing hands,"where just a moment before he'd blown bubbles/out the Humvee window, his left hand holding the bottle,/ his right hand dipping the plastic ring in soap.../something for the children, something beautiful..." And in the midst of the chaos an old Iraqi woman cradles her dying grandson thinking: "To have your heart broken one last time/ before dying, to kiss a child given sight/ of a life he could never live? It's impossible,/this isn't the way we die."

Brian Turner's Meteoric Rise to Literary Fame

The 38-year-old Brian Turner from Fresno, Calif., was a team leader with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, and he was stationed, for much of 2004, near Mosul. His fellow soldiers in Iraq didn't know he was writing poetry and he saw no reason to advertise his MFA from the University of Oregon. “It’s hard to be hard-nosed if you’re writing poetry” , he says.

Here, Bullet , published in 2005, was Turner's debut collection; it won the 2005 Beatrice Hawley Award and was named a New York Times Editor's Choice. Here, Bullet generated a tremendous amount of interest. Reviews in the New York Times and The New Yorker, interviews on PBS and NPR, and an amazing Amazon sales ranking. Turner says it means a lot to him when people approach him and say they usually don't read poetry, but love his book. And he is always touched when another Iraq veteran walks up and "says I got it right."

Brian Turner Reads 2000 lbs. on YouTube

Turner is initially soft spoken, but in front of an audience, his readings become dynamic explorations of literature and global politics. He is rapidly becoming a voice that helps to explain the Iraq war experience and is compared to Vietnam War writers Yusef Komunyakaa, Bruce Weigl, and Tim O’Brien. (from "A Conversation with Brian Turner" in Virginia Quarterly Review). Turner has an exceptional gift for bringing images vividly to life, and his poems, overall, transcend the subject of war and capture emotions to which all readers can relate. It is a haunting experience to listen to him read 2000 lbs. on You Tube.

Iraq Veteran's Poems Speak With Compassion About War Experience, (Editor's Choice Award)

The copyright of the article 2000 lbs., Poem by Iraq War Veteran Brian Turner in American Poetry is owned by Christine Welter. Permission to republish 2000 lbs., Poem by Iraq War Veteran Brian Turner in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.