You killed the enemy or the enemy killed you. In 1963, John Kennedy said in a speech at Amherst College, When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. Surely Vietnam was evidence enough of the corruption of power, and one might venture to say that the act of writing these poems even the worst of themis an act of cleansing. Unencumbered by history ] In Still Later There Are War Stories, he warns: We grow Like its predecessor, DMZ contained much that relied on emotion rather than craft. Bowels and a heart that sings be hes one of the Lords No sweat, man, Duffy replies. Records, souvenirs, pretending long since fled or buried It was a brutal battle; no quarter asked, none given. Goodbye, David -- my name is Dusty. did any damn red rocketsglare. Who knows what else awaits only the touch of a pen or the favor of apublisher? like tiny glaciers. Possession turns on him like swimming ducks, Poetry By David Connolly Thoughts on a Monday Morning Originally written after a memorial service for 59 troopers from the Second Squadron of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment who were killed in action or who died as a result of wounds received when ambushed by an entrenched, numerically superior force while on an operation in the Michelin Rubber Plantations, near the town of Dau Tieng, in . as if to discover hiserrors. So, basically you had accepted the fact that you were going to die?It was getting a little dicey! Duffy replied.It seems like, going in, your position was not survivable.I think probably so, but I was never fearful in the whole battle.In a recording, Duffy (call sign: Dusty Cyanide) talks to the aircraft coming to his rescue.My situation is I got 37 personnel. Best of all, poets like Weigl and Balaban are still young and still producing. Then drops his aim. So easily frightened they were perfect warning. He had enlisted in the Army in 1960 and gone to war six years later, a geriatric fighter compared to the teenagers . after dark US enters war in 1964 after Gulf of Tonkin incident. then at least let's give him homage, at the ending of his days. to a corporal, and he did. damn, they fire on us. the shrapnel in my thighs I go to a slam once a month here in my neck of the woods and a Vietnam vet shares his experiences which go on and on and on. The war killed him . Former medic Brown is particularly interesting, having remained in the Army from 1968 to 1977, and one can only wonder why he stayed in and why he got out. Meet the influential author and key figure of the Harlem Renaissance. I slide on my army suit. He is author of 14 books of prose and poetry, and editor or coeditor of four anthologies, and has been publishing regularly in VQR since 1980. I was in the Florida State Drivers license office building getting my new drivers license. Quintana is on the English faculty at Mesa College, San Diego. Is the greatest contribution, to the welfare of our land. I am the . she is burned behind my eyes If youve never been a soldier, you cant understand the bond between guys who, like he says, dont even necessarily like each other, but who are willing to be there for each other, Scruggs, 68, said in a telephone interview from Annapolis, Maryland, where he practices law. Two of his poetry collections,SangreandThe History of Homewon the American Book Award. The fear has come over me quick. | Privacy, Coyright, Legal Info | Website Developed by Hollman Media, LLC, class="cbs_national-template-default single single-cbs_national postid-2127832 tribe-no-js wpb-js-composer js-comp-ver-6.10.0 vc_responsive". The agent called me to her window to process my papers. It wont matter then to me but now School children walk by, he writes in OnDeath: Some stare Zambia. . Crushing the shower shack. Wets her face. I think this poem was published some time before 1972 before I went to college.I cant remember the magazine (probably TIME). served in Vietnam in any capacity at all. Turning in the war, the tropical heat like hate If we cannot do him honor, while he's here to hear the praise. I can tell true stories/of the jungle, he writes in When I Am 19 I Was aMedic: I sleep strapped to a .45, Threat S.N. All rights reserved. Sign up for the American Experience newsletter! With the passage of time, Caseys poems seem less substantial than former medic Paquets, but back then they were deemed good enough to earn him the Yale Younger Poets Award, and his collection Obscenities appeared almost simultaneously with Winning Hearts andMinds. Ruthless: Monopoly's Secret History (espaol). Balaban is particularly adept at contrasting the impact of the war on Vietnam with the indifference of those at home. You know now that your life But for others in the volume, and for Vietnam-related poetry in general, Winning Hearts and Minds proved to be only the forerunner for a body we fire on. Today, comfort and teaching themselves deceive but when, last week, I ushered hare-lipped, tusk-toothed kids Four current veterans one of the Vietnam War and three who served in Iraq explain how writing their experiences down has helped them come to terms with what they lived through. Herbert Krohn, a former Army doctor, exhibits particular sensitivity and sympathy for the Vietnamese. The dying and wounded moaning softly,Despair and hurt are common:Is this glory? destined to live my life with stress. Woman in the Woods - I think you just managed to inspire me to write a poem about war from a Marine Moms perspective. to surgery in Saigon, I wondered, what had they drunk Viet Cong forces begin prolonged attack on US bases, such as Khe Sanh. I remember a flower, rhapsody, the soldier-poets: scattered among the war-related poems are numerous excellent poems on other topics, suggesting an ability to transcend Vietnam. We were fighting for what we believed in. ' An estimated 2 million Vietnamese civilians were killed, and 58,000 US soldiers died in action. There are five others beside you. his home, his kin, and Country, and would fight until the end? ] Former Airman Horace Coleman writes of his Saigon daughter in A Black SoldierRemembers: She does not offer me one of the I lay down in it Where then do these poems comefrom? The audience applauded after she characterized those who fought in Vietnam as moral transgressors. Later returning to Vietnam independently in order to study Vietnamese oral folk poetry, he spent a total of nearly three years in the war zonelearning to speak Vietnamese fluently and even getting wounded on one occasionand he is as much a veteran of Vietnam as any soldier I have evermet. I didnt have a sign on me that says crazy combat medic with PTSD, like giving me the boot as I walk out the door, Stuck on depression could use some relief, Others come home and hide behind closed door, Shooting a machine gun and throwing flames, I know it's a game but it got my attention, There's more than training that powers us, It's love for our brothers that is a big plus, Went to war to find love for their brothers, Providing security so his platoon could advance, Stormed enemy trench to give them a chance, Sacrificed himself while his platoon made a stand, Gave his own life so his brothers will last, During enemy attack, comrade falls in the line of fire, Leaves the safety of his hole, knowing the consequences are dire, Watches the enemy aim knowing it's the end, Two men in light aircraft take hit and loose power, Pilot won't survive but the navigator can, Ditched the plane in water to save the other man, It's hard to comprehend what he had just done, Prisoner of war with the Viet Cong for 3 years, Gave his food and meds to support his peers, Gained respect from the enemy for the valor he showed. So, I guess BobK's answer hits home! upon her gold Who in the The poems collected here range from mournful elegies to impassioned protests, yet and nearly all struggle with processing the meaning and scope of the conflict. cannons twice as fast as the old gunships. And ghostlylaughter. Poems from and about the American involvement in Vietnam. And when soldiers have too much time and too many questions and no answers worthy of the label, they begin to turn inward on their own thoughts where lies the terrible struggle to make sense of the enormity of the crime ofwar. Vietnam is officially reunited as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. But his poems are apparently based on interviews with numerous Vietnam veterans, and they ripple with authority. His poetry and fiction have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. over and over. One could feel enemy eyes Howells was the Colonel's aide. but the passing of a soldier, goes unnoticed, and unsung. Why?. All of that was about to change forever. The antiwar rhetoric really hit home with Fink after he heard former nun and antiwar activist Elizabeth McAlister speak at the seminary. "This is the price you pay for having a great father. The air strikes he called in were the only thing keeping badly-outnumbered South Vietnamese troops from being overrun. I stood there not so long ago. Oct. 7, 2012. Im staying with you, you need cover,We are a team, we have fought togetherAnd if need be we will die together.That may be the cost of saving our troopers.. shivering uncontrollably in the mud. This will always be light Americas bicentennial year brought the publication of Bryan Alec Floyds The Long War Dead (Avon), a collection of 47 poems, each given the name of a fictitious member of 1st Platoon, U.S.M.C. Floyd, a Vietnam-era Marine officer, did not actually serve in the war zone. Like the Wall, Scruggs said, Finks poem addresses the loss that so many veterans felt and still feel. Somewhere over there was once your home. I don't think I like war anymore. The type of day that dogs don't understand. Duffy was the lone American advisor to a battalion of South Vietnamese paratroopers sent to hold Fire Base Charlie. by the minnows flash, the tremble of a breast, document.documentElement.className += 'js'; In 1965, President Johnson commits 200,000 troops to the war, rising to more than 500,000 in 1967. We were fighting for what we believed in. Windy sighs. Years later, Fink learned that Van Andels family and friends had always wondered whether war had stripped the Nebraskan of his humanity. speaking French It would not be unreasonable to assume that by this time whoever among Vietnams veterans was going to surface as a poet would by now have done so. Here we are at Vietnam. Until Im covered and theres only one smell, to take us to the airport. is paid off with a medal and perhaps a pension, small. President Nixon orders the Christmas bombings, the heaviest US air strikes since WW II. he was the At funerals of Vietnam veterans coast to coast, the grieving are being comforted by words written nearly a half-century ago by a young . Find out what each side had in its arsenal. to put your gear on and hear shots, During the last years of the war, when the inevitable outcome was becoming increasingly apparent to everyone involved, the best journalists covering Vietnam shifted their attention from day-to-day stories to reflect on larger themes that attempted to explain what had actually happened and why. Bombs so long falling; after falling, the fun, our sense of humor And because the war dragged on and on in ever-escalating stalemate for weeks and months and years, there was time and more than enough time for soldiers to think about the predicament in which they found themselves. So I can keep on living, It was a brutal battle; no quarter asked, none given. I am the last person you will touch. Without even the illusion of a satisfactory resolution, the war ground on for years after most veterans had come home, and the fall of Saigon has been followed by one reminder after another: the boat people, the amnesty issue, Agent Orange, delayed stress, the occupation of Cambodia, the bombing of the Marine barracks in Bierut, the mining of Nicaraguas harbors. W. D. Ehrhart, a former Marine sergeant and veteran of the Vietnam War, holds a PhD in American Studies from the University of Wales, where he did his dissertation on American poetry of the Korean War. Sign in|Recent Site Activity|Report Abuse|Print Page|Powered By Google Sites. But his presence should remind us, we may need his like again. Plus, I was 62, and the Vietnamese are typically about 56, Duffy said. In The Winter Before the War, he talks of raking leaves in late autumn, the approach of winter, the first snow and ice-fishing,concluding: The fireplace Out of that hole and ran These are wonderful poems, made more so by their juxtaposition with touchingly beautiful nonwar poems like Snowy Egret and Small Song for Andrew. And if Weigls poetic vision is less hopeful than Balabans, it is equally compelling andvibrant. It is, with touching effectiveness, his daughter who links so many of these poems together. a nasty curse I should have foreseen. I am a farmer and I know what I know. hell was fighting whom? You did a good job. I am of the same generation as Harris, the courageous draft resister and anti-war campaigner who died on February 6. Its not Shakespeare, he said, but it says simply and directly what most military people, especially those who served in combat, feel about fellow soldiers.. Its not often (if ever) a recipient of the Medal of Honor is also a published poet. After Caliban in Blue, McDonald had published two additional collections, both good, neither touching on Vietnam. book "FOOT clockwise: me, Nina, Shamik with Paahi, Krishna, Sonal (Mohit's clicking), India: Calls for Khalistan justified based on Hindu Rashtra demand highlight threat of religious politics | SN Sahu, FOOTPRINTS IN THE BAJRA a "first in Indian writing in English". we called forjets. Strange prospect so full ofducks. in saying my wifes name at the Chu Lai Laundry, who wouldnt give him his uniforms because they werentfinished: Who wouldve thought the world stops one leg, clear the sides with your arms, clear the back, Nothing more can be done, except to save them. I try to imagine she runs down the road and wings I will stay with you until you stay with me. Except for that, Target him! (national academy of letters, India) recently published a nice review to my Stuck to her dress like jelly, The dying and wounded moaning softly,Despair and hurt are common:Is this glory?Martin said, Thats a good question: Is this glory?Is this glory? In Eating the Forest, he speaks of soldiers/trained to sleep/where the moon sinks/and bring the darkness home[. Over their nose***, No jaw that have been cut along the way Soon it will be here,It seems strange no more.Martin said, Strange no more. With roses for the brave, And suddenly I heard a voice. Our children slept. To see dead bodies on the ground. Zambia. Dedicated their Courage and Time to a Cause. in Vietnam I prayed fervently. Korea produced almost nothing at all. Fink doesnt consider the poem to be great literature, but he hopes it brings some comfort to the more than 7.3 million living veterans who served during the Vietnam War. Martin said, Strange no more. I wrote a tribute to my son on Facebook for veterans day.but it wasn't poetry. all those pierced eyes, ear slivers, jaw splinters, They were young enough to have no worldly experience whatsoever, they had absorbed the values of their society wholesale, and they had no earthly reason before their arrival in Vietnam to doubt either their government or the society that willingly acquiesced in theirgoing. is the jungle Yet that oblique approach is enormously effective, creating a netherworld of light and shadows akin to patrolling through triple-canopied jungle. March in Washington against the Vietnam War, Code Poem: From the International Code of Signals for the Use of All Nations, At the Justice Department November 15, 1969, America Politica Historia, in Spontaneity, Lines Written on the Occasion of President Nixon's Address to the Nation, May 8, 1972, Assemblage of Ruined Plane Parts, Vietnam Military Museum, Hanoi, Vietnamese-American poet contemplates his personal ties to the war, California Lecture: from Poetry and Politics, Encyclopaedia Britannica entry on the Vietnam War. For when countries are in conflict, then we find the Soldier's part. It is, then, it seems to me, hardly any wonder that so many former soldiers have turned to the solitude of pen and paper. The average age of American soldiers in Vietnam was 19-and-a-half (in World War II it had been 26). No one couldve expected more from them. Democrats are more nuanced--more in line with this poem. a fool counting the cards, a monkey praying, The conflict marked a turning point for how Americans saw the militarys place in the world. And not the jungle green Charles Fink reads the poem "Bury Me With Soldiers," which he wrote as a tribute to the U.S. servicemembers who served during the Vietnam War. *** The news came on. Some of the poems are as short asGuns: When the M-16 rifle had a stoppage, South Vietnamese government falls. In his poem, Duffy imagines the orders the North Vietnamese commander gave his troops: "The big American with the radio on his back, I want him killed, he is controlling the aircraft. separation to her Beat inside her until she rises Even worse, Americas veterans could not even crawl away to lick their wounds in peace. While Balabans poems offer little comfort, they have much to teach. How can peace be in a greencountry? Not all the poems in After Our War deal with Vietnam. Going to the US Department of Defense and the VA to tell them you can retro engineer your own post war PTSD in order to train others who are going off to war to not receive PTSD after the war, is like going to Saudi Arabia to tell them you have developed an engine that runs on air. On a rain-soaked day such as this American troops withdraw and return home, though more than 2,500 soldiers remain missing in action or prisoners of war. Like many who served in the controversial war that dragged from 1955-75, Hagan's time in Vietnam left him bitter at the loud anti-war protests of the late 1960s and early '70s. my child through my fingers into my soul. You are probably surrounded. for popping a loud-mouth punk in the choppers. Those Americans who supported the war couldnt understand why the soldiers couldnt win it. It was also said the VC kept chickens leashed to strings. No one couldve expected more from them. 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