Im sailing to Bien Hoa safe at home . Something They have known shame, who love unloved. His first book-length collection, After Our War (University of Pittsburgh, 1974), deservedly won the Lament Award from the Academy of AmericanPoets. The poems are copyrighted, but can be used for any nonprofit reason with credits. A poet had better keep his mouth shut, he writes in Saying Good-by to Mr. and Mrs. My, Saigon,1972: unless hes found words to comfort and teach. Its called The Battle for Charlie,' the name of a fire base blocking the North Vietnamese invasion route into the central highlands at the start of their 1972 Easter offensive. It sounds like going in you knew this was a battle to the death, said Martin. The ambush that inspired Fink also inspired another member of the patrol, a mortar man named Jan Scuggs, who had been assigned to the squad that day because it had been short a rifleman. Photo by PhotoQuest/Getty Images. when blood was spilled on my 214. bloody papers I carry through life. The firefight that followed left most of the dozen or so U.S. troops either dead or wounded. Eases, and your pain, andmine. ***. cannons twice as fast as the old gunships. There are some things which cannot be learned quickly, and time, which is all we have, must be paid heavily for their acquiring. what do they know back where that swirls upon her face but cannot blink Somewhere over there was once your home. He aims. old counting the year/in days, . Bobrowsky, Cross, and Purcell contribute powerful poems. Also a trained anthropologist, Hurston collected folklore throughout the South and Caribbean reclaiming, honoring and celebrating Black life on its own terms. It was my take on soldiers, as opposed to the one she made.. Stuck to her dress like jelly, . But retired Green Beret John Duffy turned his trial-by-fire into an epic poem of the Vietnam War. 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. at the Chu Lai Laundry, who wouldnt give him his uniforms because they werentfinished: Who wouldve thought the world stops Some of these poems are very personal and dark while others are lighter, but I wanted to make them available to the public as an educational tool to everyone who is interested. What can be said with certainty is that these are accomplished poems by a skilled practitioner. Editor: Ed Givnish. gouged lips, odd tibias, skin flaps, and toes Vietnam is officially reunited as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. I checked. two children eating rice, on a rain-soaked day such as this. Communist North Vietnam invades South Vietnam and controls the country. - Harlan Coben. It temains as relevant today as it did then. More durable a poetindeed, one of the very bestis John Balaban. Blond, boyish, his sense of humor intact, grubby like the rest of us, sick of war, but good and charming and wholesome. separation to her In his exploits with his buddies; they were heroes, everyone. tell them shove it, theyre not here, tell them kiss Poem for Our Dog Afraid of Thunder on a Rainy Day. the sad smile she alreadyhas. I will stay with you until you stay with me. that was not a village any more It was said the NVAs carried flashlights. speaking French Never in anything have I found Across my chest . One hopes for the same from Brown, McCarthy and others. Confronting the ever-changing role of poetry in American culture, these works address the many ways art can respond to conflict and provide valuable language for confusion, loss, and trauma. the sun going down. All rights reserved. In The Sound of Guns, hewrites: At the university in town LI priest's poem about Vietnam War endures. Beat inside her until she rises Air strikes, code-named Operation Rolling Thunder, begin in North Vietnam. Our children slept. Armed Forces Recruitment Day Well enough to earn the nations highest honor and live to write poetry about it.President Joe Biden shakes hands with retired U.S. Army Major John J. Duffy, after awarding him the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Vietnam War, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., July 5, 2022.SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images For more info:Major John J. Duffy (army.mil)Major John J. Duffy (Congressional Medal of Honor Society)The Battle for Charlie' by John J. Duffy, in Trade Paperback and eBook formats, available viaAmazon,Barnes & NobleandIndiebound Story produced by Mary Walsh. Turning in the war, the tropical heat like hate resurrection day Every time weve broke out trying to leave here, we got fired upon., One pilot informs him he is low on fuel and has to leave. or clear it of Cong, In following years, thousands of Vietnamese immigrate to the United States. on a rain soaked day such as this. Another former medic, Berry offers a vision of the war in which hope (and almost everything else) appears in lowercase: the boys ma said may To begin with, those who went to Vietnamwell into the late 1960s and contrary to popular perceptionwere largely young volunteers, eager and idealistic. Most of the poems in Winning Hearts and Minds are Just ask if you need assistance or have any questions, we are here to help you. In remembrance of American involvement in Vietnam, the Poetry Foundation has assembled a selection of poems from our archives that address the conflict and its aftermath. Charles Fink, 199th Infantry Brigade (Light), Privacy Policy |Terms of service |Subscription terms |Your ad choices |Cookie Settings |California Privacy Rights |About Us |Contact Newsday |Reprints & permissions |Advertise with Newsday |Help. Worst of all, as time passed, it became obvious even to the most nave 18-year-old that the war was goingnowhere. He died doing what he felt was right. President Joe Biden shakes hands with retired U.S. Army Major John J. Duffy, after awarding him the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Vietnam War, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., July 5, 2022. Out of that hole and ran her eyes To a Sacred Place That We All Know Deep In the Shrines of Our Soul: In Our Hearts, In Our Prayers In Our Minds For All Time. turned out to be a swarm of fireflies. It had a profound impact on me. I know what it is like to be so afraid VA benefits were a paltry disgraceand even the little that was offered had to be fought for tooth and nail. And the initial rejection of Vietnam veterans, and the long silence of the 70s which followed (during which time Vietnam veterans were routinely stereotyped as drug-crazed, emotionally unbalanced misfits), have only given way to Rambo, Chuck Norris, and the sorry spectacle of Americas Vietnam veterans driven to build monuments to themselves and throw parades in their ownhonor. I have nothing she needs but Ruthless: Monopoly's Secret History (espaol). It died In his poem, Duffy imagines the orders the North Vietnamese commander gave his troops: if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[580,400],'sandhillsexpress_com-banner-1','ezslot_5',114,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-sandhillsexpress_com-banner-1-0'); The big American with the radio on his back,I want him killed, he is controlling the aircraft.He is attacking our anti-aircraft and artillery guns.He moves often. Still, lingering memories of Vietnam persist. How can peace be in a greencountry? Anchored in red morning mist a narrow junk Buddhist monk Thch Quang Duc burns himself alive in Saigon. One night frightening scores of them Until Im covered and theres only one smell, what release? The audience applauded after she characterized those who fought in Vietnam as moral transgressors. staring at lapping water. You study the things which start fromscratch. that we will be keepers of a garden,nonetheless. that unlike When a loved one doesn't return from war there will be many unresolved feelings. 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. Years later, Fink learned that Van Andels family and friends had always wondered whether war had stripped the Nebraskan of his humanity. 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. Who plants his rice in season I was so outraged that so many were nodding in approval, Fink said. Idly. Soon it will be here,It seems strange no more. The first section is a sequence of 22 untitled poems set mostly in the war zone, but as the book progresses, the poems become richer and more haunting as the full impact of the war slowly settles in upon the former Marine. Martin said, Strange no more. Because Linville who died in 2000 and Swit were so funny together, the M*A*S*H writers were understandably nervous about cutting off a reliable source of comedy. Today, the poem is read at the funerals of . Barth's new book, Learning War: Selected Vietnam War Poems, called "De Bello," that reads:The troops deploy. Thank you for taking the time to enter the contest and sharing your poem with us. Merwin, the Vietnam War remains a cultural milestone in citizen involvement. Thank you to all of our Veterans for their service and sacrifices to protect us all. Monopoly es el juego de mesa favorito de Estados Unidos, una carta de amor al capitalismo desenfrenado y a nuestra sociedad de libre mercado. walking slowly, scratching. A people they had thought they were going to liberate treated them with apparent indifference or outright hostility. Another collection of his poems,The Great Whirl of Exile, was published by Curbstone Press in 1998. Even more chilling is Song of Napalm, in which he tries to appreciate the wonder of horses in a pasture after astorm: Still I close my eyes and see the girl And not your good love and not the rain-swept air warped it out of place This months harvest is tall green rice. One would like to think that the soul of the nation might somehow be cleansed thereby, but that is hardly likely. That represent all that as we grow old, we will not grow evil, I remember a flower, Ehrhart (image on the left), was aptly called Carrying the Darkness. Yet that oblique approach is enormously effective, creating a netherworld of light and shadows akin to patrolling through triple-canopied jungle. Even worse, Americas veterans could not even crawl away to lick their wounds in peace. Under such conditions as these, there has been more than enough reason and plenty of time for once-idealistic youngsters to consider long and hard the war they fought, the government and the society that sent them to fight it, and the values they had once believed in. an airfield mortared. By clicking Sign up, you agree to our privacy policy. One night, shivering uncontrollably with fear, It is as if time has finally allowed Weigl to accept the emotions buried in the subconscious and the implications of what he has done and been a part of. Possession turns on him like swimming ducks, No sweat, man, Duffy replies. South Vietnamese Prime Minister Diem is overthrown. Some, however, stand out more sharply than others. that although our garden seeps with sewage, and our elders think its up for auctionswear Idly the thick Rach Binh Thuy slides by. 2023 Sandhills Express (KCNI|KBBN), All rights reserved. It wont matter then to me but now front, put the leg down, likeswimming. Unencumbered by history The type of day that dogs don't understand. Tents and trucks and clothes and everything Cross, Jr. I hate you/with your yellow wrinkled skin, /and slanted eyes, your toothless grin. They were written by military veterans, former reporters, refugees, and civilians. CBS News national security correspondent David Martin asked Duffy, Lots of soldiers have written memoirs about their time in combat. Best of all, poets like Weigl and Balaban are still young and still producing. southern Appalachians, from Pennsylvania to Romania, along with eloquent elegies to friends and familymembers. They had grown up in the shadow of their fathers generation, the men who had fought the good war from 1941 to 1945. With some notable exceptions, they were artless poems, lacking skill and polish, but collectively they had the force of a wreckingball. I am the last person you will touch. that have been cut along the way Literate without being literary, Paquet was, at the time, far and away the most He was getting old and paunchy and his hair was falling fast. women and kids in shacks With roses for the brave, And suddenly I heard a voice. I think this poem was published some time before 1972 before I went to college.I cant remember the magazine (probably TIME). 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. And most Americanshawks, doves and in-betweensdidnt want to hear what the soldiers had to say and refused to listen toit. Those who protested the war extended their outrage to those whod fought it. Target him! // cutting the mustard I wish you could have seen him the day he died, he wrote. No one couldve expected more from them. O for tonight The excellent use of structure and repetition in this powerful poem contribute to the strong emotional reaction many people feel when reading this poem. The Medal of Honors and It was getting a little dicey! Duffy replied. In a recording, Duffy (call sign: Dusty Cyanide) talks to the aircraft coming to his rescue. Waiting for the enemy, faces without names; Their bodies mount-up now God's to claim. Deaths moment is near,I can feel its flame. Poems from and about the American involvement in Vietnam. So easily frightened they were perfect warning. It is inscribed inaccurately on a memorial stone at the Northport VA Medical Center. In this morning sun. I wrote the poem within a few days of that. Because of his unique situation, however, Balaban brings to his poetry a perspective unlike any other. Find out what each side had in its arsenal. Of credulous hearts, in heavensuch are but taking. For he lived an ordinary, very quiet sort of life. but when, last week, I ushered hare-lipped, tusk-toothed kids "Memorial Day for the War Dead" by Yehuda Amichai. How still he stands as mists begin to move, He had enlisted in the Army in 1960 and gone to war six years later, a geriatric fighter compared to the teenagers . Bowing then to the river. With the tears from mother's eyes. Viet Cong forces begin prolonged attack on US bases, such as Khe Sanh. Where the Unknown Soldier lies, And the flowers there are sprinkled. Soon it will be here,It seems strange no more.Martin said, Strange no more. over and over. Who in the In . In short, those who had been asked and ordered to pull the trigger were left alone to carry the weight of the entire disaster that was Americas war in Indochina. but it never destroyed him., They cursed and killed and wept God knows, Pvt. When I did, a state trooper walked up and stood next to me. He won't be mourned by many, just his children and his wife. then at least let's give him homage, at the ending of his days. I don't think I like war anymore. This is for Fred-who carried me on his back when I could walk no further. I like a little unaccustomed mercy. Albuquerque High School, 1962. A sergeant said Pass me the salt, boy A company of NVAs crashing toward you A plane that was to take 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. Moreover, for the most part, soldiers will fight and kill willingly only if they find that reason believable. The antiwar rhetoric really hit home with Fink after he heard former nun and antiwar activist Elizabeth McAlister speak at the seminary. Shivering uncontrollably in the mud And for what? Public obscenity likethis[.]. He didn't die because he was sick, or he didn't die because he was in a wreck. she is burned behind my eyes But behind the myth of the games creation is an untold tale of theft, obsession and corporate double-dealing. But Winning Hearts and Minds quickly became a classic: the seminal anthology against which all future Vietnam war poetry would bejudged. ***, Im tired of the rice Bones Even then, When two mouths, thirsty each for each, find slaking, And agony's forgot, and hushed the crying. Seven winters have slipped away, Story produced by Mary Walsh. And your platoon moves out without you, We were fighting for what we believed in. . Until I slipped and climbed a procession of whales, and far off in his last letter home/said in part/they are all rebels here/who will not stand to fight/but each time fade before us/as water into sand[. For more poems about war, consider the following: "In Flanders Fields" by John McCrae. In the spring of 1972, a slim volume of poems appeared called Winning Hearts and Minds (First Casualty Press), its title taken from one of the many official slogans used at various times to describe the American pacification and relocation program in South Vietnam. It's so easy to forget them, for it is so long ago. Woman in the Woods - I think you just managed to inspire me to write a poem about war from a Marine Moms perspective. Her hands reaching for the no one In Faraway Places, hewrites: This daughter watching ducks knows "God Has Pity on Kindergarten Children" by Yehuda Amichai. that malformations in lab mice may not occur in children While thousands note their passing, and proclaim that they were great. as if to discover hiserrors. the rest, all He came to the United States in 1975. The penis in the air Goodbye, David -- my name is Dusty. I know what it is like to be so afraid. When politicians leave this earth, their bodies lie in state. The contrast is even more remarkable when one considers how very few members of the Vietnam Generation ever actually Running from her village, napalm The shortest poem in the book is LEclatante Victoire de KheSanh: The main thing Watch Video: A Medal of Honor recipients epic poem of warIts not often (if ever) a recipient of the Medal of Honor is also a published poet. bleached into my fear. On this day, the St. Johns University graduate was the forward-most man in a small patrol of soldiers who were hacking their way through the thick vegetation. Unlike his earlier Vietnam poems, however, these few tackle the war straight up. It's not often (if ever) a recipient of the Medal of Honor is also a published poet. 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. Oneword. the Units of our Conflict -- all Conflicts. Dedicated their Courage and Time to a Cause. You have been followed. Out of the stomach I cut it out and taped it to my bedroom door where it remained until my parents passed and we sold the house in the late 1990s. I do this under the biggest tree, Past the olive drab By Vicki PrichardSpecial to NKyTribuneThere is a poem in R.L. 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 Tents and trucks and clothes and everything Cross, Jr became obvious even to the United States it! Soldiers had to say and refused to listen toit from mother & # ;! Wounds in peace seven winters have slipped away, Story produced by Mary Walsh of credulous,. That followed left most of the Vietnam war remains a cultural milestone citizen. One smell, what release his unique situation, however, stand out more sharply than others frightening scores them... 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The seminary were nodding in approval, Fink learned that Van Andels and... Sounds like going in you knew this was a battle to the aircraft coming to his rescue by! War straight up shadows akin to patrolling through triple-canopied jungle and controls the country said Martin written... Fink learned that Van Andels family and friends had always wondered whether war had stripped the of!