We Lived Happily During the War

In Kaminsky’s poem, individual and collective sensibility fuse into one. Critic Will Brewbaker claims: “From the beginning, Kaminsky makes his intent clear: he will hold up a mirror to himself, and, if we happen to catch our own reflection, we would be wise to join him in owning our failures — political, personal, or otherwise.” For Kaminsky, this occurs through the expert way he works with the American lyric: “we opposed them but not / enough. I was / in my bed, around my bed America / was falling,” seamlessly shifting perspective between “we,” and “I” (Lines 3-6).

Brewbaker notes: “As the scope widens from ‘house’ to ‘street’ and all the way out to ‘our great country,’ the net of complicity widens, too, to include every reader and—importantly—the speaker himself.” The house becomes a symbol for shared reality and interconnectivity. Not only the speaker’s individual house and comfort of their bed, but “the disastrous reign” also takes place in a house: “a house of money” (Line 9). In this way, Kaminsky’s commitment to interrogate language in a time of crisis confronts the way language obscures and divides. As an alternative, he exposes and unites.

Kaminsky is obviously interested in how these the webs of connection are “invisible.