War Zones
Zvi A. Sesling
Nixes Mate Books, Allston Mass. 2018
Reviewer: Ari Appel
With its
tragic accounts of war and its human toll, War Zones by Zvi A. Sesling
is an outstanding addition to any bookshelf, especially that of someone
interested in war. It is consistent in portraying the uselessness and waste of
war, each poem building off of the effect of the last as reading the book
leaves one with a progressively darker and darker image of what war means. From
loss of life to loss of dignity to loss of limb, Sesling covers a lot of ground
for a short book. Some of my favorite lines are “Memories flash back like / an
M-16 in the dark jungle,” “Bones in pieces and minds shattered,” and “War is
the future,” the last of which is an interesting proposition—the book touches
on the theme of war as ongoing several times.
A poem that
really stuck with me describes the tragedy of a fallen soldier who is given a
10-second memorial on a television station but Sesling describes him as
follows: “Remembered or not he is already / forgotten by the nation / his
moment of glory / he will not hear the cheers / for the returned living.” The
idea that a fallen soldier can be so easily forgotten is compelling as we have
forgotten so many fallen soldiers. A 10-second memorial on TV does nothing more
than pay lip service to an issue that goes on and on in the background of most
of our daily lives. The toll of war is real, and Sesling wants his readers to
know this in all of its vivid detail.
What I like
about Sesling's book above any of its individual components, which I do admire,
is his ability to piece together a work that is so homogeneous in subject
matter without ever leaving a feeling of repetitiousness. Every page is a new
story with the same underlying theme (war) but constantly builds on rather than
repeats what came before. I read poem after poem without ever feeling like I
had ever read the same thing twice. Sesling's War Zones is a laudable
and well-put-together poetry volume that deserves to be read by all, and should
absolutely be read by anyone who has any role in the decision-making process
that leads to war.
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