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Benno's avatar

I like the many links you make in the poem, branching into other poems, which in contrast to the stonecutter engraving names of the dead gives something to think of, thanks.

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James Hart's avatar

I agree with Benno; I appreciate the layers you put into this: relating stonework, anti-war sentiment and references to Flanders and of course "Bloody Sonnets."

One thing I've been thinking about lately: Dadaism, surrealism, etc. came about as a critique against the extreme rationality and reason that many believed led us to World War I. These days, we're very much ruled by a rationalist world ideology—and look what that's done to the level of fighting. I think maybe they were on to something. (I'd also make the argument that abandoning myth and intuition for reason and philosophy is what got both the Greeks and the Romans in serious trouble in the later parts of their empire.)

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