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Why Poetry of Witness Is Important for Military-Affiliated Learners on Your Campus
HigherEdMilitary
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Poetry of Witness has become a part of the military inclusive curriculum at Arizona State University. If you are interested in learning more about how poetry can shape military inclusivity on any college campus, please enjoy this Q&A with Professor Rosemarie Dombrowski.
Monika Sziron: For those of us who are not familiar, what is poetry of witness?
Rosemarie Dombrowski (Arizona State University): "Poetry of witness" is a phrase that was first used by Carolyn Forche to describe poetry that is born out of the witnessing of conflict, poetry that has an "immediacy [reminiscent] of war correspondence." As a young poet, Forche traveled to El Salvador, where she witnessed one of the most brutal civil wars of the 20th century. This experience inspired her acclaimed poetry collection, "The Country Between Us" (1981), which won the Lamont Prize in poetry.
She went on to publish the groundbreaking anthology entitled "Against Forgetting: 20th Century Poetry of Witness" (1993). In the introduction to that collection, she defines the poetry of witness as poems produced by poets who "endure social conditions of historical and social extremity...through exile, state censorship, political persecution, house arrest, torture, imprisonment, military occupation, warfare, and assassination." She goes on to say that "these poems bear the trace...evidence of what has occurred. In fact, the poem might be our only evidence that an event has occurred."
In this sense, the poetry of witness becomes a more personal, lyrical form of war reportage.
Sziron: How does poetry of witness complement the educational experience of a military-affiliated learner?
Dombrowski: I think military-affiliated learners are accustomed to experiencing stereotypes of both military personnel and conflict/war as depicted by the media and Hollywood, and though I'm not suggesting that all of those depictions are entirely inaccurate, there's something very different about what a poet - or what I might call a poet-ethnographer - observes and records. The poet's depiction is going to be more culturally sensitive both in its depiction of individual experiences and of the cultures/peoples facing-off in the conflict zone. Though I can't argue that a poet is going to be more embedded or informed than a journalist, a poet is certainly topically freer in the sense that they're not playing by the rules of reportage or driven by numbers/clicks; they're also not in the business of producing propaganda. A poet/poem is also more likely to substitute quantitative data in favor of anecdotes and narratives that engender emotional and even empathetic responses in the reader. In short, the poetry of witness humanizes all soldiers and military-affiliated peoples.
Sziron: How can military-affiliated instructors, or staff, advocate for a poetry of witness course or workshop on their campus? What have the successes been for your courses and how did you get them off the ground?
Dombrowski: The course that I piloted in the spring of 2023, Brutality & Beauty: The Poetry of Witness & Conflict, was supported by both the Veteran Studies program (VTS) and the Office for Veteran and Military Academic Engagement (OVMAE) at ASU. Before enrollment for the Spring '23 session opened, I facilitated a poetry workshop for veterans through OVMAE, so we were able to announce the class then; thus, several of the attendees enrolled. Ultimately, we know that including the words 'poetry' or 'literature' in course titles can intimidate potential students, so advertising courses like this at veterans' storytelling events, writing circles/workshops, film-screenings, and any other events offered by a university's veteran center can help break the ice.
If you're a faculty member advocating for the creation of a course like this, I'd recommend partnering with a poet, literature professor, or graduate student who can help curate the readings and advertise the course more broadly. Cross-listing special topics courses are a great way to get diverse enrollment, which can enrich the experience for all parties.
What I discovered in my initial offering was that military-affiliated students were likely to engage very differently with the poems and discussion questions. They tended to use a particular poem as a springboard into a personal anecdote, which then led to a grappling with a philosophical dilemma. My non-military undergrads were primarily English majors, and accordingly, given their lack of military experience (and life experience in some cases), tended to resort to literary/poetic analysis. These differing approaches (and perspectives) provide instructors with an opportunity to facilitate inter/intracultural, intergenerational conversations.
Sziron: What are some of your favorite poetry of witness poems that military-affiliated students, faculty, and staff would find connection to?
Dombrowski: Because I also teach a medical poetry class, I'm going to come clean and admit that Walt Whitman's Civil War collection of poetry, "Drum Taps," is my absolute favorite. He not only witnesses the union troops heading out into battle, he ends up working as a wound-dresser in the makeshift hospitals in D.C., thereby witnessing the atrocities of war from a medical perspective. He also inscribed hundreds of letters home for the dying soldiers he was treating, so his insights went well beyond that of an observer.
I think most people are familiar with the most canonical World War I poets, Wilfred Owen and Sigfried Sassoon, both of whom were British. Both were infantrymen, and their work has been called "harshly realistic," painfully imagistic, and invaluable to the history of this global conflict.
In the 20th century, my favorite collections come from Yusef Komunyakaa, a Vietnam veteran who published two award-winning collections on the war: "Toys in a Field" (1986) and "Dien Cai Dau" (1988), the latter of which has been acknowledged as being among the best writing on the war in any genre. In short, he's an American treasure who gives us painfully lyrical insights into racism, colonialism, warfare, and trauma.
In the 21st-century, we have Brian Turner, arguably the best living war poet in America today, and also Hugh Martin, both of whom are Iraq war veterans. To sum up the power of their poetry, they both employ what I'd call "the vernacular of combat," and their insights into culture, community, and conflict in the military are unrivaled by their predecessors.
Sziron: Are there any other thoughts/concepts/important factors you would like to share?
Dombrowski: As a medical humanist, I tirelessly advocate for individual/patient agency. In other words, if we don't tell our own stories, no one will tell them for us. At best, we'll be misrepresented. At worst, we'll be silenced.
Additionally, community is built via the coming together of voices, which oftentimes produces what I call a community of shared suffering.
Poetry is not only a dynamic example of agency and a key community-building tool, it's a portal to producing our own narratives, and though we may not all produce publishable literary works, our stories deserve a platform, and courses like this can help build it.
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