Bill Moyers Interviews Maxine Hong Kingston
    Bill Moyers Journal
    Friday 25 May 2007

On this Memorial Day weekend I am reminded that I have never had to go to war, never been tested under fire, never had to kill or be killed. What I have learned about battle I have learned from the real experts, from veterans - and from poets. With their power of empathy and evocation poets open us to what lies buried in the soldier's soul. I remember to this day hearing one of my high school teachers read Wilfred Owen's pained cry from the trenches of France: "I am the enemy you killed, my friend."

***

I'm grateful we studied Wilfred Owen for a levels. I wouldn't have noticed him otherwise. And he's so important for humanity.
For me, Mental Cases should be the best close reading I've done, even up till now (in fact i think my lit skills are degenerating).