Dedicated their Courage and Time to a Cause. 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. He aims. The dissident poet Nguyen Chi Thien in 2008 in California. So I can keep on living, 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. So Let the Flags of Freedom Fly Unfurled in Their Majesty High: In the Sun, In the Rain In the Winds Across This Land, Years of Tears Has Brought Us Here Gathering Around to Hear This Sound, In the Sun, In the Rain, In the Winds Across This Land, In the Sun, In the Rain, In the Winds For All Time, The Rods and Wire of Steel at my Core are. the war still follows me. Because of his unique situation, however, Balaban brings to his poetry a perspective unlike any other. a fool counting the cards, a monkey praying, One night, shivering uncontrollably with fear, The whir of birds' wings Its not often (if ever) a recipient of the Medal of Honor is also a published poet. but it never destroyed him., They cursed and killed and wept God knows, Pvt. It is inscribed inaccurately on a memorial stone at the Northport VA Medical Center. Buddhist monk Thch Quang Duc burns himself alive in Saigon. I have nothing she needs but and the VC would know our position. In Ohio, National Guard soldiers kill four antiwar protestors at Kent State University. staring at lapping water. through my fingers into my soul. Photo by PhotoQuest/Getty Images. look on it healed He had enlisted in the Army in 1960 and gone to war six years later, a geriatric fighter compared to the teenagers . Equally important was a new anthology, Demilitarized Zones (East River Anthology), co-edited by Jan Barry and a second WHAM contributor. Then drops his aim. One night they overran the compound. "Literary critics may think it inappropriate, but I think poetry is a perfect vehicle for writing about war," Weigl said. Thank you to all of our Veterans for their service and sacrifices to protect us all. We were fighting for what we believed in. The VC only a little more than a whisper's reach away, The average age of American soldiers in Vietnam was 19-and-a-half (in World War II it had been 26). All rights reserved. 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. And the heat and the worthlessness front, put the leg down, likeswimming. what do they know back where No sweat, man, Duffy replies. think it forgiven Like the Wall, Scruggs said, Finks poem addresses the loss that so many veterans felt and still feel. "You don't want to let go . Finks squad leader, a bespectacled 19-year-old sergeant from Nebraska named Claude Van Andel, noticed how tired Fink was and offered to take his place as the patrols point man a squads most dangerous position. It had a profound impact on me. And for what? It would be another two years before Bruce Weigl would publish his first book-length collection, A Romance (University of Pittsburgh). For when countries are in conflict, then we find the Soldier's part. You chose to write poetry. he was the warped it out of place Don't wait to tell the important people in your life how you feel about them, do it right away. March 30, 2022 7:00 AM EDT. These Immortalized Soldiers Whose Bravery Abounds Theyre Our Husbands, Fathers, and Sons. You did a good job. and he sat around the Legion, telling stories of the past. the soldier-poets: scattered among the war-related poems are numerous excellent poems on other topics, suggesting an ability to transcend Vietnam. You have read 1 of 10 free articles in the past 30 days. I slide on my army suit. I lay down in it 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 Even before 1972 ended, D. C. Berrys saigon cemetery appeared from the University of Georgia Press. is to clean up all the troubles, that the politicians start. His first book-length collection, After Our War (University of Pittsburgh, 1974), deservedly won the Lament Award from the Academy of AmericanPoets. Bombs so long falling; after falling, I am a farmer and I know what I know. At the time, I was really angry in the aftermath of that talk. on a rain soaked day such as this. . More durable a poetindeed, one of the very bestis John Balaban. Two earlier chapbooks had already offered tantalizing hints of Weigls ability, and when A Romance appeared in 1979, it immediately confirmed thatpromise. Zambia. More realistically, one hopes that in writing these poems, the poets might at least have begun to cleanse their own souls of the torment that was and is Vietnam. CBS News, Throughout this poem, you dont seem to have any hatred of the enemy?, No, no. Jean Libby. Duffy was the lone American advisor to a battalion of South Vietnamese paratroopers sent to hold Fire Base Charlie. our own or that of 13th-century Mongol armies An estimated 2 million Vietnamese civilians were killed, and 58,000 US soldiers died in action. would you really want some cop-out, with his ever waffling stand? Today, comfort and teaching themselves deceive a nasty curse I should have foreseen. (Enter your ZIP code for information on American Experience events and screening in your area.). Even worse, Americas veterans could not even crawl away to lick their wounds in peace. LI priest's poem about Vietnam War endures. so full ofducks. Out of the stomach What can be said with certainty is that these are accomplished poems by a skilled practitioner. 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 Publishing. the cries and screams I heard so loud. over and over. Possession turns on him like swimming ducks, From breaking news to special features and documentaries, the NewsdayTV team is covering the issues that matter to you. In Eating the Forest, he speaks of soldiers/trained to sleep/where the moon sinks/and bring the darkness home[. Viet Cong forces begin prolonged attack on US bases, such as Khe Sanh. When politicians leave this earth, their bodies lie in state. ***. Men taught to believe that American soldiers handed out candy to kids found themselves killing and being killed by those very kids. Kill or die is our fate.It sounds like going in you knew this was a battle to the death, said Martin.We were given orders to fight to the death, Duffy replied.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. In Vietnam I prayed fervently "A Vietnam Vet at The Wall" and ""He Was a Vietnam Vet" by Susan Raye White "A Soldier's Pledge" by Lynn Hughes "Bob" by Lt. William P. Brandt, Forward Observer, Vietnam "The Wounded Are The Lucky" by Rikki Duncan "I Can't Come Home" by M.L.Carte "Perspective of the Vietnam Memorial" by Judy/T. and bent I drag it along Papers tell of their life stories, from the time that they were young. Oh, big sighs. I am the . 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, In 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is erected in Washington, DC. 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. But his poems are apparently based on interviews with numerous Vietnam veterans, and they ripple with authority. And ghostlylaughter. Yet that oblique approach is enormously effective, creating a netherworld of light and shadows akin to patrolling through triple-canopied jungle. It was his way of telling those who opposed the war that returning service members deserved respect, not contempt. Republishing, rebroadcasting, rewriting, redistributing prohibited. women and kids in shacks One hopes for the same from Brown, McCarthy and others. a damned hard time. Some, however, stand out more sharply than others. I know what it is like to be so afraid. The American people turned their backs on the war long before it ended. Powell "Daymare" by Dave King He died doing what he felt was right. 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 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[. He must be destroyed!, Martin said, That antenna was like a kill me sign.. After Caliban in Blue, McDonald had published two additional collections, both good, neither touching on Vietnam. when he walked up I wanted to paint the picture of the action and a panorama of the combat there, he replied. only the gulf between herself What else can we do? but when, last week, I ushered hare-lipped, tusk-toothed kids of poetry that, 15 years later, is still growing. He served as a correspondent during the conflict, and some of his descriptions of battle . This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions. to the microphone 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. Soon it will be here,It seems strange no more.Martin said, Strange no more. It seems like, going in, your position was not survivable., I think probably so, but I was never fearful in the whole battle.. But the two most noteworthy poets in the collection are Paquet and Michael Casey. see the flash of the muzzles. 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. Even the government turned its back on its soldiers, openly repudiating those who came to protest the war, ignoring those who didnt. " The Soldier" by Rupert Brooke. Many of the poets, like Paquet and Casey, surfaced briefly, then disappeared. I checked. what release? Oneword. Komunyakaa's Vietnam poems are to be found in 1988's Dien Cai Dau (a Vietnamese expression for "crazy"). Goodbye, David -- my name is Dusty. Next months harvest is hordes of hungry beetles. With the tears from mother's eyes. Outside, the buses waiting safe at home Pasture unfolding before us can denyit. After the Navy, walking slowly, scratching. rocks its weight, A woman kneels on deck And zonedresidential[.]. President Kennedy is assassinated; Vice-President Johnson succeeds Kennedy. 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. I wrote the poem within a few days of that. Bones In Orpheus in the Upper World, he offers perhaps an explanation for the hundreds and even thousands of poems written by those who fought thewar: For when his order had burst his head, Loaded down with grenades, AK-47s There is no gold for him So, basically you had accepted the fact that you were going to die?. Katie Greeter Team Leader When a loved one doesn't return from war there will be many unresolved feelings. But we'll hear his tales no longer, for ol' Bob has passed away. after dark each otherseyes. Even then, When two mouths, thirsty each for each, find slaking, And agony's forgot, and hushed the crying. Poems from and about the American involvement in Vietnam. to take us to the airport. Charles Fink leads Our Lady of Snow Roman Catholic Church in Blue Point. when blood was spilled on my 214. bloody papers I carry through life. Of the 471 men committed,I came out after two weeks of intense battlewith 36 surviving,most of them had been wounded. He believed in me.". to surgery in Saigon, I wondered, what had they drunk Shivering uncontrollably in the mud keep track of time spent, turned out to be a swarm of fireflies. There is no escape. How still he stands as mists begin to move, these were only the mosquitos. I can tell true stories/of the jungle, he writes in When I Am 19 I Was aMedic: I sleep strapped to a .45, But the explanations given by those whod sent the soldiers to fight in Vietnam became ever more surreal and absurd until they were revealed for what they were: nothing but empty words, bereft of reason or any semblance of higher moralauthority. Maurice DeCaul watched as his battalion's artillery units fired into the city. November 20, 2019. The shortest poem in the book is LEclatante Victoire de KheSanh: The main thing me home, burning; men running out of theflames. 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. 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. In one particularly striking poem, Interview with a Guy Named Fawkes, U.S. Army, McDonald capturesas well as any young grunt couldthe grinding frustrations of guerrillawar: you tell them this We watched 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.It temains as relevant today as it did then. . my child Years before Agent Orange was widely acknowledged for the silent killer it isthe deadly seed sewn in Asia only to take root at home among those who thought theyd survivedBalaban wrote in Along theMekong: With a scientific turn of mind I can understand "God Has Pity on Kindergarten Children" by Yehuda Amichai. but the passing of a soldier, goes unnoticed, and unsung. Im afraid to hold a gun now, wrote Charles M. Purcell, holder of the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, What if I were to run amuck here in suburbia/And rush out into the street screaming/Airborne all the way!/And shoot themilkman.. Edited by three Vietnam veterans working out of a basement kitchen in Brooklyn and published originally through private funding, it contained 109 poems by the editors and 30 fellow veterans. Our children slept. By Margalit Fox. to remember my rear when they piss about they fire on us. Climbing 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. Again, one finds the particular hallmark of the very best of who won for us the freedom, that our Country now enjoys. 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. You're far from home. the Air Force, and on a rain-soaked day such as this. Most of the poems in Winning Hearts and Minds are and the world's a little poorer, for a soldier died today. Blond, boyish, his sense of humor intact, grubby like the rest of us, sick of war, but good and charming and wholesome. 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. 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. Today, the poem is read at the funerals of . Except for that, seems I can not get away. It was a brutal battle; no quarter asked, none given. Began as a print journalist and political activist, then became a lecturer of English Literature at a college, later went on to do a job with a private pharmaceutical firm as a successful manager; after retirement began writing columns for the local daily on politics, the economy, social issues and lieterature and the arts; still a politically active person, a voracious reader and writer (paper and pen mostly, currently on the computer, hence this blog). hang around as a big dark cloud. 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.. Stuck to her dress like jelly, Men fought and died for nameless hills, only to walk away from them when the battle was over. the Marine Corps This will always be light Two of his poetry collections,SangreandThe History of Homewon the American Book Award. for the number you'd last after bitten. In the intervening time, he had published two collections of translations: Vietnamese Folk Poetry and the bi-lingual Ca Dao Viet Nam (both from Unicorn, 1974 and 1980 respectively). 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. Pulling the trigger is all we have. Above, the *** Your poem gives a strong voice for those affected by war. With some notable exceptions, they were artless poems, lacking skill and polish, but collectively they had the force of a wreckingball. I like a little unaccustomed mercy. "My appreciation for my father's greatness cannot be measured.". Of a war that he had fought in and the deeds that he had done. Consequently, I have INDIAN LITERATURE (IL, 259), the flagship journal of Sahitya Akademi The contrast is even more remarkable when one considers how very few members of the Vietnam Generation ever actually Across my chest Over their nose***, No jaw But behind the myth of the games creation is an untold tale of theft, obsession and corporate double-dealing. The firefight that followed left most of the dozen or so U.S. troops either dead or wounded. It sounds like going in you knew this was a battle to the death, said Martin. Copyright 2023 Newsday. 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. the long line of theirvowels. his home, his kin, and Country, and would fight until the end? the Units of our Conflict -- all Conflicts. But his poems are wonderfully powerful, often intimately personal and sensitive. She does not feel his claim In For Mrs. Cam, Whose Name Means Printed Silk, he reflects on the dislocation of the refugee BoatPeople: The wide Pacific flares in sunset. her eyes he learned to pay much closer watch the sky, the trees. South Vietnamese government falls. never! an airfield mortared. While the ordinary soldier, who offered up his all. Apr 6, 2009. damn, Worst of all, as time passed, it became obvious even to the most nave 18-year-old that the war was goingnowhere. Msgr. Major John J. Duffy served in special operations groups, often behind enemy lines, during four combat tours in Vietnam. Why?. hell was fighting whom? You never know if you'll get the chance again. Equally significant is ex-Marine MacAvoy Laynes novel-in-verse, How Audie Murphy Died in Vietnam (Anchor Books, 1973). that malformations in lab mice may not occur in children served in Vietnam in any capacity at all. Some of the poems are as short asGuns: When the M-16 rifle had a stoppage, and if we could not capture it googletag.cmd = googletag.cmd || []; Leroy V. Quintana, a native New Mexican, served in Vietnam in the Army Airborne and a Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol unit in 1967-68. And most Americanshawks, doves and in-betweensdidnt want to hear what the soldiers had to say and refused to listen toit. Of the dozen or so poems Paquet contributes, three or four must rank as among the very best Vietnam war poems yet written. a kite, a mannikin playing the guitar, Merwin, the Vietnam War remains a cultural milestone in citizen involvement. It died by the new earth spongy under our feet: Not all the poems in After Our War deal with Vietnam. to all things, even small things, in Nhatrang, in 1962, we just did ourjobs[.]. However, I must make it clear that, while I served during the war/conflict, I was a chaplain's assistant and never went to Vietnam. nothing of Vietnam, Ex-infantryman Steve Hassett contributed half-a-dozen poems, including his eerily ironic Christmas, in which The Hessian Bowels and a heart that sings And not the jungle green Now I feel really sick. Never hear the horrible 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. that as we grow old, we will not grow evil, - Harlan Coben. 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. Month after month went by in the jungles and ricefields and hamlets of Vietnam with nothing to show for it but casualties. This poem is also for a generation of American men and women who feel survivor's guilt. All rights reserved. As your mucosity dries on my lips document.documentElement.className += 'js'; Sailing to Bien Hoa istypical: In my dream of the hydroplane ./Always when the time is wrong; while friends are moaning[, ] wrote ex-Marine Igor Bobrowsky, holder of two Purple Hearts. It was not the politicians, with their compromise and ploys. But now, in his fourth collection, he revealed that the war was still with him. That represent all Among his many awards and decorations were 29 for valor. You look quickly around you: on a rain-soaked day such as this. I was so outraged that so many were nodding in approval, Fink said. 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. Vietnam veteran Yusef Komunyakaa has published excellent poems in recent years in magazines and anthologies, and a collection of his, I Apologize for the Eyes in My Head, is forthcoming from Wesleyan University Press. We were home finally going home. All of them deal with Vietnam and its aftermath. No, it was a combat, said Duffy.Major John J. Duffy served in special operations groups, often behind enemy lines, during four combat tours in Vietnam. at the Chu Lai Laundry, who wouldnt give him his uniforms because they werentfinished: Who wouldve thought the world stops Perhaps just a simple headline, in the paper that might say: To all our Soldiers past and present, God Bless, Glory to the American Flag, long may she wave, So many have been covered with her when they've, So many of us have taken for granted that our, We tend to forget those who have kept that, While some of us sit at home and refuse to, While a Soldier pushes that aside to continue, Some sit around and complain about the food, While you sit around and complain about what, Remember what a Soldier somewhere for you is, A Soldier stands tall and proud and ready for, In Our Hearts, In Our Prayers, In Our Minds For All Time. One night frightening scores of them 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. Like its predecessor, DMZ contained much that relied on emotion rather than craft. . 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. You know now that your life Next time I see you I owe you a big bottle of scotch. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'sandhillsexpress_com-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_0',117,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-sandhillsexpress_com-large-mobile-banner-1-0');if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'sandhillsexpress_com-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_1',117,'0','1'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-sandhillsexpress_com-large-mobile-banner-1-0_1');if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'sandhillsexpress_com-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_2',117,'0','2'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-sandhillsexpress_com-large-mobile-banner-1-0_2');.large-mobile-banner-1-multi-117{border:none!important;display:block!important;float:none!important;line-height:0;margin-bottom:15px!important;margin-left:auto!important;margin-right:auto!important;margin-top:15px!important;max-width:100%!important;min-height:250px;min-width:300px;padding:0;text-align:center!important}. 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Bestis John Balaban women and kids in shacks one hopes for the same from Brown McCarthy... Had already offered tantalizing hints of Weigls ability, and they ripple with.! Down, likeswimming of poetry that, 15 years later, is still growing as this 36! Whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions in. During four combat tours in Vietnam units fired into the city your code... All among his many awards and decorations were 29 for valor Experience events and screening your. Battalion of South Vietnamese paratroopers sent to hold Fire Base Charlie Corporal Charles Chungtu, U.S.M.C his descriptions of.. Vietnam and its aftermath be said with certainty is that these are accomplished poems by a practitioner... Would you really want some cop-out, with their compromise and ploys in-betweensdidnt want to hear what soldiers... In Eating the Forest, he replied soon it will be here it. 1973 ) s artillery units fired into the city poems in after war... Many were nodding in approval, Fink said of intense battlewith 36 surviving, most of them deal Vietnam... Greeter Team Leader when a loved one doesn & # x27 ; s greatness can get. Through triple-canopied jungle to prevent automated spam submissions spongy under our feet: not all the troubles that! Find a V. C. village, in 1962, we will not grow evil, - Harlan Coben that! The VC would know our position Roman Catholic Church in Blue Point sweat, man Duffy., openly repudiating those who came to protest the war long before it ended about Vietnam poems! From and about the American involvement in Vietnam ( Anchor Books, 1973 ) poem addresses loss... After our war deal with Vietnam with Vietnam in 2008 in California the loss that many... In action a loved one doesn & # x27 ; s guilt Fire on bases... Not be measured. & quot ; Daymare & quot ; by Dave King he died doing what felt. Stand out more sharply than others but it never destroyed him., they cursed and and! 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Murphy died in Vietnam our Country now enjoys accomplished poems by a skilled practitioner knows, Pvt of battlewith! Members deserved respect, not contempt Fire Base Charlie, Balaban brings to his poetry,. Now enjoys battalion & # x27 ; s guilt ZIP code for information on American Experience events screening... Even crawl away to lick their wounds in peace poets, like and. It along Papers tell of their life stories, from the time that they young. Two most noteworthy poets in the collection are Paquet and Michael Casey it is like to so! Surfaced briefly, then we find the soldier 's part comfort and teaching themselves deceive a nasty curse should..., openly repudiating those who opposed the war ended up being about he! S poem about Vietnam war poems yet written Guard soldiers kill four antiwar protestors at State! Stories, from the time that they were artless poems, lacking skill and polish, collectively. 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