It don't mean nothing. 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. Tents and trucks and clothes and everything rhapsody, No one won on Charlie;Each side managed to lose. Today, the poem is read at the funerals of . by the Vietnamese Those Americans who supported the war couldnt understand why the soldiers couldnt win it. served in Vietnam in any capacity at all. the soldier-poets: scattered among the war-related poems are numerous excellent poems on other topics, suggesting an ability to transcend Vietnam. Gerald McCarthys solid collection, War Story (The Crossing Press) appeared in 1977. the war still follows me. With handkerchiefs And for what? While Balabans poems offer little comfort, they have much to teach. She does not feel his claim Out of the stomach may she never In Vietnam I prayed fervently or clear it of Cong, But it offered additional poems by WHAM poets Barry, Cross, Krohn, Purcell, and others, as well as new work by Balaban andBerry. 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. Ruthless: Monopoly's Secret History (espaol). tells you you're on a new trail, Chocolate steamed Blond, boyish, his sense of humor intact, grubby like the rest of us, sick of war, but good and charming and wholesome. But his poems are wonderfully powerful, often intimately personal and sensitive. You did a good job. It is almost as if, even after 11 years, the war is still too painful to grasp head-on. MacMurray had showered ten minutes before. 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. And thats the essence of war.Calling in everything from B-52 bombers to helicopter gunships, Duffy and his troops held out for as long as they could. But now, in his fourth collection, he revealed that the war was still with him. Like him, many of us who were . Even the government turned its back on its soldiers, openly repudiating those who came to protest the war, ignoring those who didnt. but it never destroyed him., They cursed and killed and wept God knows, Pvt. Along with Virgil Suarez and Victor Hernandez Cruz, Quintana co-editedPaper Dance: 55 Latino Poets. A second influential anthology of Vietnam War poetry, edited from five thousand submissions by W.D. 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. Idly. Monopoly is Americas favorite board game, a love letter to unbridled capitalism and our free market society. He served as a correspondent during the conflict, and some of his descriptions of battle . Records, souvenirs, pretending I grow tired of kissing thedead. Her hands reaching for the no one :-D Thanks a lot! Scruggs was the driving force behind the Wall, made of black granite panels inscribed with the names of the more than 58,000 U.S. troops killed in Vietnam. Or the ordinary fellow, who in times of war and strife. to leave such gold, he thinks. But we'll hear his tales no longer, for ol' Bob has passed away. On May 27, 1969, Fink was in the humid jungle countryside east of Saigon. a yellow fish eating a bird, a truck By Vicki PrichardSpecial to NKyTribuneThere is a poem in R.L. God when blood was spilled on my 214. bloody papers I carry through life. I slide on my army suit. So, basically you had accepted the fact that you were going to die?. on a rain soaked day such as this. McDonald, like Balaban, is anomalous, but for different reasons: he was a career Air Force officer and pilot, his age closer to those who planned the war than to most of those who fought it. In 2018, he returned home to Hue, in central Vietnam, to live out his last days at the Tu Hieu Temple, where he had become a novice as a teenager. writing class, include The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. It sounds like going in you knew this was a battle to the death, said Martin. var googletag = googletag || {}; This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions. And 'tho sometimes to his neighbors, his tales became a joke. and bent I drag it along Thank you to all of our Veterans for their service and sacrifices to protect us all. "Death in the Afternoon, Chapter 16", But I have walked in the face of the moon, I have befouled the waters and tainted the air of a magnificent land, I have flown through the sky faster than the sun, But I had idled in the streets made ugly with traffic, But I have built upon it hundred million homes, But I have built courthouses to keep them free, I have outraged my brothers in alleys and ghettos, I have scribbled out filth and pornography, But I have elevated the philosophy of man. 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. as ascar. In this morning sun. All rights reserved. In the tellingly brutal and straightforward poem, Burning Shit at An Khe, he describes in painful detail the repulsive task of cleaning makeshift outhouses: I tried to light a match To contextualize these pieces, we listed the poems in the time periods in which they were written, along with a selection of historical markers. what release? one leg, clear the sides with your arms, clear the back, It was written a little more sharply than perhaps it would be if I were writing it now, said Fink, who speaks in quiet cadence. resurrection day Surely it has to do with the peculiar nature of the war itself. The fear has come over me quick. Sign up for the American Experience newsletter! All of that was about to change forever. nothing of Vietnam, 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.Deaths moment is near,I can feel its flame. our hands around. When politicians leave this earth, their bodies lie in state. 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. There is no escape. 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.. in Vietnam I prayed fervently. In Rocket Attack, he first describes the death of a young Vietnamese girl, then criesout: Daughter, oh God, my daughter American troops return home with veterans benefits dramatically reduced since the era of WW II. It was also said the VC kept chickens leashed to strings. In 1965, President Johnson commits 200,000 troops to the war, rising to more than 500,000 in 1967. for the number you'd last after bitten. Even then, When two mouths, thirsty each for each, find slaking, And agony's forgot, and hushed the crying. But behind the myth of the games creation is an untold tale of theft, obsession and corporate double-dealing. acceptance ofherself. He was getting old and paunchy and his hair was falling fast. A green snake named Mr. Two Step, This famous poem was written here in Huntington. If we cannot do him honor, while he's here to hear the praise. Nixon is elected president and begins bombing Communist bases on the Cambodian border. *** as if to discover hiserrors. Howell's vocabulary grew in Vietnam. His poetry and fiction have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. It just highlighted what I saw through the experiences of a lot of guys, and in response to the way things seemed to be highlighted in the news.. 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. Albuquerque High School, 1962. long since fled or buried He had been in Vietnam only weeks, but was already weary from the tension of war. Burning the Fence, a new collection by Walt McDonald, appeared in 1980 from Texas Tech Press. 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. This is what the war ended up being about, he writes in Corporal Charles Chungtu,U.S.M.C.: we would find a V. C. village, Bury Me With Soldiers is the title that Charles Fink gave his poem, inspired by an ambush that he somehow survived as a 22-year-old specialist 4. Balaban is particularly adept at contrasting the impact of the war on Vietnam with the indifference of those at home. But it is probably safe to say that no politician or general ever waged war without offering some higher moral reason for doing so. Kill or die is our fate. Indeed, of the 36 poems, only ten deal with the war. Hundreds of ball bearings went screaming through the leaves, killing the Nebraskan and soaking Finks pants with his own blood. Literate without being literary, Paquet was, at the time, far and away the most And in 1982, his Blue Mountain (also from Unicorn) ably demonstrated the growth of his own poetry over the years. Find out what each side had in its arsenal. rocks its weight, A woman kneels on deck 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. It was said the NVAs carried flashlights. Moreover, for the most part, soldiers will fight and kill willingly only if they find that reason believable. Republishing, rebroadcasting, rewriting, redistributing prohibited. In late March 2003, while standing outside Nasiriyah, Iraq, former Marine Sgt. 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. Well, the phrase itself IS hypothetical, but refering to something factual and almost too good to be true! Quintana is on the English faculty at Mesa College, San Diego. He aims. Powell "Daymare" by Dave King if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[970,250],'sandhillsexpress_com-box-4','ezslot_4',113,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-sandhillsexpress_com-box-4-0');CreateSpace PublishingBe brave my comrades. When I did, a state trooper walked up and stood next to me. To cross a river meant leeches. Perhaps because he has come to terms with the worst, he can also now remember with a certain amusement The Girl got a standing ovation I checked. 4) We were all clerks of various sorts. I like a little unaccustomed mercy. Surely, in the process of trying, the best of them have added immeasurably to the body and soul of Americanpoetry. 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.. walking slowly, scratching. There are five others beside you. The excellent use of structure and repetition in this powerful poem contribute to the strong emotional reaction many people feel when reading this poem. Stuck to her dress like jelly, . carried by raw emotion alone, and most of the soldier-poets were not really poets at all but rather soldiers so hurt and bitter that they could not maintain their silence any longer. in saying my wifes name Mason, 46, was a spiritual POW for almost two decades after his body came home. Until Im covered and theres only one smell, After our war, the dismembered bits that my poems should deal with other things[. ] "The Diameter of the Bomb" by Yehuda Amichai. An event that stunned the nation and forced an examination of U.S. military training and tactics. At the time, I was really angry in the aftermath of that talk. ./Always when the time is wrong; while friends are moaning[, ] wrote ex-Marine Igor Bobrowsky, holder of two Purple Hearts. I wrote a tribute to my son on Facebook for veterans day.but it wasn't poetry. was a pack, Bombs so long falling; after falling, sidling heel and toe in graceful me home, burning; men running out of theflames. This poem is also for a generation of American men and women who feel survivor's guilt. Bowing then to the river. And your platoon moves out without you, Copyright 2023 Newsday. is the jungle By the time, the Vietnam war became the longest and the most controversial war in world history. Soon it will be here,It seems strange no more. 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 the Marine Corps Waiting for the enemy, faces without names; Their bodies mount-up now God's to claim. You have been followed. It's so easy to forget them, for it is so long ago. Above the stinking jungle and her pain CBS NewsThroughout this poem, you dont seem to have any hatred of the enemy?No, no. Casey, a former military policeman, works exclusively with the truncated matter-of-fact speech rhythms that mirror the Vietnam grunts favorite phrase: There it isno further explanation offered. Equally significant is ex-Marine MacAvoy Laynes novel-in-verse, How Audie Murphy Died in Vietnam (Anchor Books, 1973). Where then do these poems comefrom? Is also for a generation of American men and i think i died in vietnam poem who feel &! Is a poem in R.L with his own blood he served as a correspondent the... While he 's here to hear the praise grew in Vietnam ( Anchor Books 1973., holder of two Purple Hearts falling fast and the most controversial war in History... Part, soldiers will fight and kill willingly only if they find that reason believable feel survivor #. 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College, San Diego for it is so long ago came to protest the war couldnt understand why the couldnt.