From my mother's sleep I fell into the State, And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze. Six miles from earth, loosed from the dream of life, I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters. When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose. Randall Jarrell
About This Quote

The poem "Six miles from earth" is a very powerful one. It is about the war in Iraq and the loss of life that it has caused. It was written by Lieutenant Colonel John M. Dorrian, who served in the 2nd Marine Division in Iraq in 2004.

The poem begins with a description of the moment when Dorrian wakes up to the realities of war: how he hunches inside his tank turret for warmth, is almost killed when an Iraqi missile knocks out his tank's gunner's position, and is then rescued by US Marines. The last section of the poem describes how he is killed in an air attack on Fallujah.

Some Similar Quotes
  1. War is what happens when language fails. - Margaret Atwood
  2. Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime. - Ernest Hemingway
  3. The world is full enough of hurts and mischances without wars to multiply them. - J.r.r. Tolkien
  4. If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war. - Leo Tolstoy
  5. Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows. - Anonymous
More Quotes By Randall Jarrell
  1. I see at last that all the knowledge I wrung from the darkness–that the darkness flung me– Is worthless as ignorance: nothing comes from nothing, The darkness from the darkness. Pain comes from the darkness And we call it wisdom. It is pain.
  2. A poet is a man who manages, in a lifetime of standing out in thunderstorms, to be struck by lightning five or six times.
  3. From my mother's sleep I fell into the State, And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze. Six miles from earth, loosed from the dream of life, I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters. When I died they washed me...
  4. It's ugly, but is it art?
  5. When I was young and miserable and pretty And poor, I'd wish What all girls wish: to have a husband, A house and children. Now that I'm old, my wish Is womanish: That the boy putting groceries in my car See me.
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