Poetry Break – “Let Me Tell You How I Died” – Pearl Harbor

  Posted on June 25, 2018 By

 50 Comments

Welcome back to the Poetry Break and the poem epic that I fell way behind on posting!  I do apologize to those of you who were waiting for the next segment.  I kept getting distracted with new finds and historical places that I was excited to write about, which I suppose is a good thing.  To those of you just tuning in, this is the latest segment of a 21 part poem epic that I wrote a few months back (you may find links to an intro for the series and the previous segments below).  I hope you enjoy this segment about the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

 

LET ME TELL YOU HOW I DIED

PART I – SEGMENT 3

Pearl Harbor 

Here in Hawaii, it’s a beautiful day

The sky is blue, the palm trees sway

The air is warm, green covers the land

Boys find their posts, and strike up the band

In comes the first wave, out of the blue

Zeros! We’re stunned!  What do we do?

The roar is deafening as the planes speed past

They fill up the sky and come hard and fast

The alarm sounds loud on the grand ship’s deck

We man our guns, but it’s already a wreck

A bomb drops, direct hit! I’m hurled to the sea

There’s red in the water floating all around me

The thick oil turns the blue ocean black

Fire burns the palm trees, roughs up the tarmac

Planes bombed to pieces, hangers burst apart

Ships tipping over, split right at their heart

Men sink down to a watery grave

Oh so young, yet our lives we gave

I’m pulled to the dregs, I’m swallowed away

On a Hawaiian December, my very last day

To Be Continued…

To read an intro to this series, and Part I – Segment 1 “The Blitz,” click here

To read Part I – Segment 2 “Stalingrad,” click here

 

 

 Category: History, World War II      Tags: ,

50 Comments on “Poetry Break – “Let Me Tell You How I Died” – Pearl Harbor”

    • Ooooh what sort of series? Poetry? Book? Will you be posting?

      Reply

      • Yes! They are on my blog…I posted #8 today – I think you would like them if you have time to read…the first group are actual letters from my dad in WWII…

  6. How sad! I can picture that horrific scene in my mind. So many young lives were lost that day. Your poetry is very descriptive.

    Reply

    • You know, I just went ahead and read all of them on the page because your poetry is so fabulous. Not only did I really enjoy the Pearl Harbor one, I also really liked Two Days Until Christmas, The Vet and the Punk, and Bill of Rights Day. You seriously have a gift, my friend 🙂

      Reply

  8. Wow, it let me like. I’m not really a poet type person but I enjoy your take. It falls into the category of I wonder what it was like.

    Reply

    • Yay glad it worked! I had my husband take a look maybe he did something that fixed it. Glad it works because I always love hearing your thoughts!

      Reply

    • Thank you! I’m sorry to say I haven’t, but it is on my list for sure. My husband and I keep saying we want to go to Hawaii for our fifth wedding anniversary. Maybe then! 🙂 Have you been?

      Reply

  11. Your poetry is very good! I had tears reading it! Pearl Harbor is one of my favorites to read about (well, more like WW!!) but i am fascinated with your poetry! I love it and cant wait for what you will write next!!

    Reply

    • Oh my that is very flattering that it moved you that much. I’m also always glad to meet another student of WWII. You will have to follow along for our upcoming trip to Western Europe to visit some of those battlefields (more on that later!).

      Reply

  12. Thanks for posting the next segment. It’s so beautifully/horrifyingly descriptive. Enjoy reading your posts, as always!

    Reply

    • Thank you very much! I’m so pleased you enjoy the poem. Always glad to have you visit!

      Reply

  15. That line about ships being split at the heart really punched me in the gut. You definitely made this scene come to life. I am also really impressed this poem has 21 parts!

    Reply

    • Thank you! <3 Yes it all kind of spilled out of me a few months back. I'm so glad you enjoyed it, stay tuned for future segments, one of which will be posted in a couple weeks! 🙂

      Reply

  19. It amazes me how often tragedy strikes on a beautiful day, like the one you describe in your piece. I liked how you set up a beautiful day in paradise, only for it to turn ugly so quickly. It’s quite moving, and beautifully done.

    Reply

    • Thank you very much! It’s a sad truth you point out about how tragedy often hits just when things are going so well! Reminds us to not take anything for granted because you never know how fast it might change. Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts!

      Reply

  20. Powerful! The title alone is heart-stopping. I guess the thing about the ‘tragedy on a nice day’ business is the contrast, is it not? I remember when I was going through a phase of reading Stephen King how he invariably lulled the reader into a false sense of comfort, before launching something truly awful. Huge impact.

    Reply

    • Oh my you are so right. King was the master of stuff like that! He was also good at the “just when I thought things were finally righting themselves, here comes this whole other horrible twist” lol. Glad you stopped by and shared your thoughts!

      Reply

  21. Pingback: Poetry Break - "Let Me Tell You How I Died" - Part I Finale - An Old Soldier - M.B. HENRY

  22. Pingback: Poetry Break - "Let Me Tell You How I Died" - Normandy - M.B. HENRY

  23. Pingback: Reblog “Let Me Tell You How I Died–Pearl Harbor – e-Quips

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“I do not mean to say that the scenes of the Revolution are now or ever will be entirely forgotten, but that, like everything else, they must fade upon the memory of the world, and grow more and more dim by the lapse of time. In history, we hope, they will be read of, and recounted, so long as the Bible shall be read; but even granting that they will, their influence cannot be what it heretofore has been. Even then they cannot be so universally known nor so vividly felt as they were by the generation just gone to rest. At the close of that struggle, nearly every adult male had been a participator in some of its scenes. The consequence was that of those scenes, in the form of a husband, a father, a son, or a brother, a living history was to be found in every family – a history bearing the indubitable testimonies of its own authenticity, in the limbs mangled, in the scars of wounds received, in the midst of the very scenes related – a history, too, that could be read and understood alike by all, the wise and the ignorant, the learned and the unlearned. But those histories are gone. They can be read no more forever. They were a fortress of strength; but what invading foreman could never do, the silent artillery of time has done – the leveling of its walls. They are gone. They were a forest of giant oaks; but the all-restless hurricane has swept over them, and left only here and there a lonely trunk, despoiled of its verdure, shorn of its foliage, unshading and unshaded, to murmur in a few more gentle breezes, and to combat with its mutilated limbs a few more ruder storms, then to sink and be no more. They were pillars of the temple of liberty; and now that they have crumbled away that temple must fall unless we, their descendants, supply their places with other pillars, hewn from the solid quarry of sober reason.”
-Abraham Lincoln

M.B. HENRY

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