How To Kill Poem by Keith Douglas

the parabola of a ball, a child turning into a man, I looked into the air too long. The ball fell in my hand seems to be a grenade, 'Now in my dial of glass appears/ the soldier who is going to die' confirms the deadly game of war. Once weapons were a superstitious 'sorcery', modern warfare has moved far beyond this as 'How easy it is to make a ghost' confirms. 'The weightless mosquito touches' is so fitting, death like a mosquito is hard to see coming, death is weightless, and death claims the great and small, thus her tiny shadow on the stone, and with how like, how infinite a lightness, man and shadow meet. They fuse. A shadow is a man when the mosquito death approaches contains vast meaning.

The weightless mosquito touches! ! Thanks for sharing this poem with us.

Very interesting poem. And timely. How easy it is for war to create ghosts. Indeed.

this jagged, uneven poem, is nevertheles i feel, one of the great poems of the last century. the mosquito image is wonderfully worked.

'He smiles, and moves about in ways his mother knows, habits of his.' Is a heartbreaking couple of lines.

Well expressed thoughts and feelings. An insightful creation from the heart. Thanks for sharing................

I tink dis poom is rubbis. to too rubbiss. I hate bery much

And look, has made a man of dust of a man of flesh. This sorcery I do. Being damned, I am amused to see the centre of love diffused and the wave of love travel into vacancy. How easy it is to make a ghost. -shows the terror of modern warfare which turns all emotion and humanity into nothingness.What a horrible thing this is! the comparison with sorcery and the example of ghost is also astounding.

Unusually good war poem- a genre I usually don't find very interesting. MM