The War Poetry Website
About the book Kosovo War Poetry
ISBN 0 9528969 2 3
60 pages 178x112 mm
£4-99 (UK) Approx $8 (US)
KOSOVO WAR POETRY
By David Roberts
Poems and satirical verse explore the propaganda, the human suffering, the moral arguments, and NATO’s “humanitarian” bombing campaign.
Poems include:
Making or Breaking
The Pilot's Testament
There will be no peace
Bereft
Comments on Kosovo War Poetry
“Congratulations. Kosovo War Poetry shows the true situation in the Balkans,” member of Iris Society of Serbian Poets, Belgrade. (Comment based on the selection of poems then on this web site.)
“Brilliant, especially The Pilot’s Testament” Bruce Kent, Peace Campaigner.
“A wonderful anti-war book . . . I urge everyone to read it,” Alice Mahon, MP, Chair of the Committee for Peace in the Balkans.
“A remarkable collection of poems . . . expressed uncompromisingly . . . a minor epic.” Ronald Mallone in Day by Day.
"Powerful and moving." Tony Benn.
"I didn't like all of the poems, but some hit their targets . . . and did make me think again about that whole sorry and continuing business. In class, this book could become part of a collection which moved the consideration of war poetry beyond the classic texts and challenged young adults with other models and contexts which might develop their own explorations in writing. It also offers a fascinating text in terms of the interplay of genres." - - Gordon Hodgson, in National Association of Teachers of English web review on yahoo.co.uk
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From an American Soldier - two letters
One
Hi! I know you do not know me but I was a female soldier stationed at Guardian base near Tuzla in Bosnia. I really enjoyed reading your poetry. Your exact words are words I use to tell my peers, other United States soldiers or NATO troops who didn't understand what they were doing there. Basically they didn't understand war.
I just want to say after being there I really began to understand war. My first reply to myself when I saw all the bombed out homes was what could make a person hate someone so much. The sad part humans have not evolved into full humans as I called, in which they get emotionally hijacked by their losses and grief that they want to hurt the very thing that hurt them. However, as my Social Psychology instructor put it destroying others is only destroying yourself. As a consequence of being there, and seeing all the things I saw, less than a year after I got out I suffered a nervous break down.
Although, it may seem that soldiers may dehumanize people sometimes soldiers are dehumanized as being people. For example, what impacts people more four civilians have been killed or four soldiers?
Have a great day. Again I really enjoyed your poetry. I hope you don't mind that I am using it on Tuesday to teach my college classmates what it feels like to be in war. At least try.
Sincerely,
Two
12 December, 2000
Dear David Roberts,
Thank you so much for writing back. The class loved your poetry.
In response to your question. I am graduating with my BA in Psychology. This is my final semester I took Child Development from a Global Perspective. That is the class I used your poetry for. I wrote a research paper on children in war. In fact, I didn't even realize I was a child soldier when I joined back in 1993, at the age of 17.
Again thank you for your kind letter.