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Brian Turner
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Here, Bullet Kindle Edition

by Brian Turner (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 160 ratings
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A first-person account of the Iraq War by a solider-poet, winner of the 2005 Beatrice Hawley Award.

Adding his voice to the current debate about the US occupation of Iraq, in poems written in the tradition of such poets as Wilfred Owen, Yusef Komunyakaa (Dien Cai Dau), Bruce Weigl (Song of Napalm) and Alice James’ own Doug Anderson (The Moon Reflected Fire), Iraqi war veteran Brian Turner writes power-fully affecting poetry of witness, exceptional for its beauty, honesty, and skill. Based on Turner’s yearlong tour in Iraq as an infantry team leader, the poems offer gracefully rendered, unflinching description but, remarkably, leave the reader to draw conclusions or moral lessons. Here, Bullet is a must-read for anyone who cares about the war, regardless of political affiliation.

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  1. Print length
    90 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Alice James Books
  5. Publication date
    September 1, 2014
  6. File size
    351 KB
  7. Page Flip
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  8. Word Wise
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The verse in this book is not good, but it is, in a cultural moment that includes Cindy Sheehan, timely. Turner served seven years in the U.S. Army, including deployment to Bosnia-Herzegovina with the 10th Mountain Division, and a year spent as an infantry team leader with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 2nd Infantry Division in Iraq. He, begins, after a prefatory poem ("This is a language made of blood./ It is made of sand, and time. To be spoken, it must be earned"), with poems whose titles precisely describe their contents: the nightmarish dispersal of "The Baghdad Zoo," the infamous "Hwy 1" ("the Highway of Death"), "The Al-Harishma Weapons Market," "Body Bags," "Najaf, 1820," "Dreams from the Malaria Pills," "Katyusha Rockets," "Observation Post #798," "2000 lbs." (in one bomb)—along with medevacs, translators, civilians and much more. Turner earned an M.F.A. from the University of Oregon before joining the army. His work is straightforward and direct. It highlights the violence and death of the war in a manner little seen elsewhere. (Nov. 1)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Turner attempts to capture the extreme experience of war by depicting the feelings it generates..." -- Library Journal

"Turner has sent back a dispatch from the war in Iraq and deserves our thanks " -- The New York Times Book Review

" a powerful reading experience " -- The Franklin Journal

" earnest, nonpartisan attention to the terrors as well as to the beauty of ruins." -- The New York Times Book Review Editor s Choice

" written by a veteran whose eye for the telling detail is as strategic as it is poetic." -- The Globe and Mail

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00LZ5SABU
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Alice James Books; 1st edition (September 1, 2014)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 1, 2014
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 351 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 90 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 160 ratings

About the author

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Brian Turner

Brian Turner

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Brian Turner is the author of a memoir, My Life as a Foreign Country, and five collections of poetry— Here, Bullet and Phantom Noise; with The Wild Delight of Wild Things, The Goodbye World Poem, and The Dead Peasant’s Handbook due out from Alice James Books in Fall, 2023. He’s the editor of The Kiss and co-editor of The Strangest of Theatres. A musician, he’s written and recorded albums with The Interplanetary Acoustic Team, including 11 11 (Me Smiling) and American Undertow with The Retro Legion. His poems and essays have been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, National Geographic, and Harper’s, among other fine journals, and he was featured in the documentary Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, nominated for an Academy Award. A Guggenheim Fellow, he’s received a USA Hillcrest Fellowship in Literature, the Amy Lowell Traveling Fellowship, the Poets’ Prize, and a Fellowship from the Lannan Foundation. He lives in Orlando with his dog, Dene, the world’s sweetest golden retriever.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
160 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

E. P. Kern
5.0 out of 5 stars Iraq Through the Poet's Eye
Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2008
Verified Purchase
"The history books will get it wrong.
There will be nothing written
about the island ferris wheel
frozen by rust like a broken clock...."
"Ferris Wheel"

In Here, Bullet, U. S. Army veteran Brian Turner gets it right as only a poet can. Through vivid and varied images and voices, Turner illustrates the nuanced reality of the Iraq War Theater. He shuns cliché as he chronicles the scenes of war from unique and unexpected perspectives. In "Baghdad Zoo," Turner displays the chaos widely reported after the 2003 invasion not through familiar images of looting, sniper fire, and explosions, but through the experience of displaced animals thrust into a surreal and alien habitat. The absurdity of the scene provides a powerful metaphor that rings excruciatingly true.

Turner displays a profound respect for the rich culture of the Middle East that is often overlooked in the strife of battle. In "Alhazen of Basra," Turner pays homage to scientific and mathematical advances that form the foundation of academics. "Gilgamesh, in Fossil Relief" honors both the ancient poet and the modern archaeologist. Narthere, a painter, strives to capture in art the war around him as Turner depicts his frustration in "Easel."

Many have been touched in one way or another by the current war. Turner broadens his readers' perspectives with the voices of soldiers, medical personnel, and Iraqi civilians. Through these balanced points of view, Turner does what no camera or history book can do. He reveals what it is like to feel a life slip through the fingers, to be at the center of an exploding market, to strive for a sense of normalcy in a world turned upside down. Turner jars the imaginations and emotions of his readers through the concise words of a skilled poet.

With a minimum of judgment, Turner illuminates the world that friends, children, siblings, and spouses have experienced in Iraq. And he reminds his readers of the common human emotions and desires shared by combatants on both sides of war and by civilians caught in between. Far from a political statement, it is a statement of the human condition in a time of war.
3 people found this helpful
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tex norman
5.0 out of 5 stars War Is Hell Understood By Poetry
Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2014
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War poetry has the tenancy to sink into the muck of premeditated maudlin mud and blood. You know, war is hell, and if you were there you feel like you should be able to break hearts and upset stomachs, gross out the pantywaists and come off like the strong survivor that you are, but Here, Bullet does not do that. I don't read a single poem that glorifies war and tries to inspire the young to join up and get themselves killed. What I read is someone who has been changed not just by war, but by words, topography, cultures, and a recognition that security and fairness are concepts that have no place in a war zone. It is important that we read the poetry of those who were there. These poems do not preach. These poems do not have an political agenda. These poems see. The poet has taken me there and doused me with buckets of fear and thought. Even a long life is short. I need poems that recognize the value of life, and how fragile life is, everywhere. I need poems that see how easily we die, and still moves me to value life. Even the poem where the soldier seems to invite the bullet to enter his body. . . Here. Bullet I'm right here, waiting for you. Even such a concept helps me, hints to me how conflicting all conflicts are, especially conflicts of war
One person found this helpful
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John Michael Albert
5.0 out of 5 stars Fundamental Humanity
Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2008
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Subject aside, this is raw poetry. It is bare. It is honest. It has all the marks of a true theophany: the mystery that attracts irresistably, and the horror that repels, that paralyzes with trembling fear at the same time. If you cannot have the experience itself, or if you want to read someone elses notes on an incomprehensible experience you've shared with them, you will want to read this. Most "great" poetry about world shaking events was written decades, if not centuries, after the event. There is, however, a short shelf of poetry written by the people who were there, written when it happened. i think people hesistate to call it "great" because it lacks the essential distance of greatness. That does not make it any less personal, any less human, any less intense--and a hundred times more fundamentally human. Reading this, I'm reminded of the overwhelming effect the Crusades had on European culture. The conquorers were conquored one by one, and Western culture is all the greater for it. I hope Brian Turner goes on to cast this writer's eye on every detail of the remainder of his life. The everyday life he grew up in the US with is no less worthy than the life he experienced over there--after all, THAT is the life millions have grown up with as everyday, by definition. Yet look at how extraordinary.
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George Parker
5.0 out of 5 stars Accessible and Real
Reviewed in the United States on April 10, 2022
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I first learned of Brian Turner as he was interviewed for the One True Sentence podcast about Ernest Hemingway. Brian sounded like he had a fascinating story himself. I looked him up in Kindle and this was the first of his books I read.

It won't be the last.

Brian writes in a concrete way that also makes you stop and reflect upon what HASN'T been said. I think he is very much a literary descendant of Hemingway in that respect. I highly recommend Here, Bullet.
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SDmom
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful poetry collection, even if you don’t normally read poetry.
Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2022
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Turner’s poetry is vivid, engaging, and relatable. We are reading this in our veteran’s book club, and everyone participating has found Turner’s poems engaging, challenging, and insightful. When people tell me they don’t read poetry, this is a collection I recommend, because everyone I know who has read it — with or without personal military connections — finds it accessible. Turner uses vivid images, clear but creative language, and historical context to challenge our understanding of culture, history, the military experience and human experience.
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Top reviews from other countries

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leelee
5.0 out of 5 stars I adore this book and can't recommend it highly enough
Reviewed in Canada on October 7, 2017
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I adore this book and can't recommend it highly enough. Whether you're looking for a new way to think about the Iraq war, or just trying to understand peace and conflict a little more clearly through the perspective of a brilliant observer of the human condition, you will find things on these pages that you didn't even know you needed.
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bambo1
5.0 out of 5 stars Da kann ich nicht zu sagen
Reviewed in Germany on May 30, 2017
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Meine Tochter brauchte dieses Buch für ihr Studium, welches sie inzwischen Erfolgreich abgeschlossen hat. Ob da Buch dabei geholfen hat, weiß ich nicht.
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The Book Witch
5.0 out of 5 stars Moving and Profound
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 25, 2012
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This is one of the most moving and profound collections of poetry I've read in a very long time. And it's certainly the best collection of war poetry since Wilfred Owen. He tells it as it is, without sentimentality or a conscious desire to shock. What we feel is the pity of war as well as the horror of it at a very personal level. As Owen said 'the pity is in the poetry'.

I particularly liked the quotes from Iraqi and Persian poets and the way the poet integrates what he is writing into their traditions as if having a conversation with them.

Everyone should read this. We might be less keen to send young men to be torn apart and psychologically maimed in the name of some grand political ideology.
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J. Brown
5.0 out of 5 stars Deeply Moving War Poetry
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 6, 2011
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Brian Turner's intensely moving poems of the war in Iraq are finely observed,compassionate and questioning. He shows a appreciation and fascination for the culture of the people and the land as well as the tough camaraderie of the soldiers with whom he served. A soldier who saw active service in Iraq, these poems convey more deeply the brutal poignancy of warthan any news report. The language is direct, strong and compelling. This collection places Brian Turner in the company of the great war poets.
2 people found this helpful
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mimi
5.0 out of 5 stars Breathtaking and heartbreaking
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 3, 2016
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This is the most hauntingly beautiful and heartbreaking collection of poetry I have read in years. I return to it time and again. It is intelligent, sensitive and overflowing with humanity.
I thought poetry was virtually dead until I reread it recently. Is war poetry the purest, the most honest genre there is?
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