Abbey Shepard

I wrote a poem about war because I’ve always seen two sides to war, the good and the bad. I
have had a few family members go into the army, and I’ve always wondered about what war
exactly does to people. I started noticing that more and more families were becoming a
household without the other parent. War has and always will be a touchy subject both social and
governmental. I hope that through this poem I can find out what my perspective about war is.
Once I started writing my poetry, I realized that I wanted mainly focus on the wrong side of war
since that’s all I have been exposed to growing up. Through the stories of both grandpa's that
went to war, in both tales they describe war as hell. With this in mind, I found one of many
inspirations to write about in my poem.

Most importantly about how can be easily glorified and that war is not always about fighting but
whether it’s about making sure that our country stays protected. The first step in my process was
thinking about what part of a war that I wanted to write about but also what is the message I
wanted to send to my audience. Once I decided on what message that I want to send to my
audience then I needed to make more powerful and make them remember it. Then I thought what
better way than talking about the people who died in the war and about speaking for them.

In my poem, I want to show how war can be effortlessly glorified, and that war is not always
about fighting but whether it’s about making sure that our country stays protected. The first step
in my process was thinking about what part of a war that I wanted to write about but also what is
the message I wanted to send to my audience. Once I decided on what message that I want to
send to my audience then I needed to make more powerful and make them remember it. Then I
thought what better way than talking about the people who died in the war and about speaking
for them. For this reason, I looked into the eyes of veterans or families who lost a family member
due to the Army, such as interviews, and articles.

The next process was trying out different styles of poetry, and it turns out that repetition was the
best option, since I could repeat a dominant line throughout the poem "I speak for the dead."
Some of my inspirations are thinking about what veterans still have to live with even enough that
are not serving anymore, how they are still haunting by nightmares or blaming themselves for a
friend's death. Another inspiration was about what the news, social media, and newspapers.
About what they do about the image of war. The news makes us see the right sides of a war and
shields us from the reality of war. Whenever you hear on the news about the topic, it's always
about a soldier rescuing another soldier or a citizen. Which is incredible, but with hope through
reading my poem, your glimpse of war is changed.