Given the recent list of national crises — oil spills, foreclosures, Lindsay Lohan — it may be easy to forget that our country is at war. There have been so many U.S. conflicts on foreign soil in the past 20 years — Iraq, Somalia, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq — that war feels frighteningly status quo, as constant as celebrity gossip. It's the visceral reality of war, however, that drives Brian Turner's poetry. Turner's first collection of poems, Here, Bullet, was a 2005 New York Times editors' choice (and won a bunch of poetry awards). The Bosnia and Iraq veteran's second, Phantom Noise, came out earlier this year to critical praise. He reads at 7 p.m. at Rockhurst University's Mabee Theater (54th Street and Troost). Admission is $3, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. Call 816-501-4607 for more information.— Danny Volin Thu., Oct. 21, 7 p.m., 2010
