“So, we’re talking about the same Jack Horne. The Jack Horne. The legend Jack Horne.”
Jack Horne is probably my favorite of the Seven. He is the reason why I watched the movie in the first place. My dad had seen the movie and found a clip on YouTube of the so-far-assembled Seven meeting Jack Horne for the first time. It makes an impression. After watching that scene a couple dozen times, I finally watched the movie. And an odd fixation was born.
Jack Horne is the tracker of the group, a man who’s lived on his own in the wilderness for a considerable amount of time, building himself a legendary reputation for his killing of Native Americans (it’s noted in the film and in history that the US government used to have a bounty on Native Americans). This makes things a little awkward with Red Harvest at first, and Jack Horne’s final confrontation with Denali even more impactful.
It’s insinuated in the film that his murderous inclinations and isolated existence were a result of his family being killed by Native Americans.
It also caused him to find God. Or maybe he already knew God, but out in the wilderness on his own, God became his bestie. He’s very devout in his faith, even as he’s clubbing and stabbing men to death. His isolation might have caused him to become a little off-kilter, too.
I knew that Jack Horne’s poem was going to invoke his faith and his past. It turned out to be the only poem of the Seven that I wrote in the first person, but it made sense. After all, it’s a prayer. And once again, I snatched a line or two from the film for the poem. They stuck in my head. I couldn’t just not use them.
The form I picked for Jack Horne’s poem is echo verse. The only rule is to repeat the last syllable or syllables of each line, and it can be repeated either on the same line or on its own line directly beneath each line. I chose to stick to the same line. It just seemed to fit better.
After all, what’s a prayer but an earnest request?
Jack Horne
Give me clear vision, Lord. Lord,
give me clear sight. Sight
to see through this sadness. Sadness
turned vengeance, vengeance
turned sadness. Lord, let me -me,
with my bitter past- bring peace. Peace
through violence. Let me fight, fight
in good company, and then, then
Lord, see me safely home. Home.
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