Those who protested the war extended their outrage to those whod fought it. And not your good love and not the rain-swept air Be brave my comrades. Fire at it I watched a father try to hold back his tears, His son had lived only a scant 19 years. Where then do these poems comefrom? Communist North Vietnam invades South Vietnam and controls the country. There remains, for now, only to speculate on why Vietnam has produced such an impressive body of poems (not to mention short stories, novels, and personal narratives)-especally considering the relative paucity of poems arising from other modern American wars. Also a trained anthropologist, Hurston collected folklore throughout the South and Caribbean reclaiming, honoring and celebrating Black life on its own terms. Something He has won an Academy of American Poets Prize . Danger came from unexpected places. a fool counting the cards, a monkey praying, think it forgiven would be a troop of baboons. 4 min read. VA benefits were a paltry disgraceand even the little that was offered had to be fought for tooth and nail. sucking sound a rocket makes whenit. by the Vietnamese But retired Green Beret John Duffy turned his trial-by-fire into an epic poem of the Vietnam War. They had grown up in the shadow of their fathers generation, the men who had fought the good war from 1941 to 1945. *** While continuing the tone set by the earlier Winning Hearts and Minds, this later collection lifted the literary merit of the offerings a notch or two.In "Guerrilla War," W.D. the cries and screams I heard so loud. Two of his poetry collections,SangreandThe History of Homewon the American Book Award. me home, burning; men running out of theflames. 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.. 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. Viet Cong forces begin prolonged attack on US bases, such as Khe Sanh. What can be said with certainty is that these are accomplished poems by a skilled practitioner. speaking French Most had been in grade school or junior high school when John F. Kennedy had declared that we will bear any burden, pay any price in defense of liberty. I know what it is like to be so afraid Among his many awards and decorations were 29 for valor. front, put the leg down, likeswimming. only a little more than a yard away. And not the jungle green In Vietnam I prayed fervently Major John J. Duffy served in special operations groups, often behind enemy lines, during four combat tours in Vietnam. Men fought and died for nameless hills, only to walk away from them when the battle was over. It was not the . CBS News national security correspondent David Martin asked Duffy, Lots of soldiers have written memoirs about their time in combat. To suggest further additions, please contact us. Current Location. Or the ordinary fellow, who in times of war and strife. At nineteen I stood at night and watched in mugs we wrapped Next months harvest is hordes of hungry beetles. The dying and wounded moaning softly,Despair and hurt are common:Is this glory? 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. cannons twice as fast as the old gunships. that swirls upon her face but cannot blink . who won for us the freedom, that our Country now enjoys. By the time United States troops withdrew from Vietnam in 1973, the Vietnam War had become one of the longest, most controversial conflicts in American history. You did a good job. Its not often (if ever) a recipient of the Medal of Honor is also a published poet. I've never been a killing kind of man. Vietnam is officially reunited as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. falling in slowmotion[.]. Editor: Ed Givnish. a yellow fish eating a bird, a truck This is for Fred-who carried me on his back when I could walk no further. Cross, Jr. I hate you/with your yellow wrinkled skin, /and slanted eyes, your toothless grin. I slide on my army suit. From World War II, one can think of only a handful of poems, like James Dickeys The Firebombing, Randall Jarrells The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner, and sections of Thomas McGraths Letter to an Imaginary Friend. This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions. 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. 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. 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 Why?. He believed in me.". the Units of our Conflict -- all Conflicts. Speak from out the grave: "I am the Unknown Soldier, The spirit voice began. In The Sound of Guns, hewrites: At the university in town - Jennifer Williamson. LI priest's poem about Vietnam War endures. More durable a poetindeed, one of the very bestis John Balaban. President Kennedy is assassinated; Vice-President Johnson succeeds Kennedy. Never in anything have I found I n March 2019, three months before the publication of Ocean Vuong's novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, he called his agent from the hallway of a Hartford, Conn . did any damn red rocketsglare. Copyright 2023 The Virginia Quarterly Review. goes off to serve his Country and offers up his life? "Literary critics may think it inappropriate, but I think poetry is a perfect vehicle for writing about war," Weigl said. on a rain-soaked day such as this. 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. With roses for the brave, And suddenly I heard a voice. 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). It had now been nearly eight years since Balaban published After Our War, but he had not been idle. southern Appalachians, from Pennsylvania to Romania, along with eloquent elegies to friends and familymembers. I know what it is like to be so afraid. two children eating rice, We were given orders to fight to the death, Duffy replied. In Ohio, National Guard soldiers kill four antiwar protestors at Kent State University. Martin said, Strange no more. Possession turns on him like swimming ducks, 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. Msgr. Like him, many of us who were . He won't be mourned by many, just his children and his wife. Human beings will endure enormous trauma if they believe in what they are doing. But if some of the non-Vietnam poems occasionally reveal the graduate student laboring to flex his intellectual muscle, they also reveal the poets ability to transcend Vietnam and reach out to the wider world aroundhim. 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}. like sillowy seeds of milkweed pod, Ehrhart, the rebel son of a minister who had . that have been cut along the way As your mucosity dries on my lips tell them shove it, theyre not here, tell them kiss But his poems are wonderfully powerful, often intimately personal and sensitive. They dared not dream, for it might be forever. from North Vietnam, mines strapped to their chests: 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. Running from her village, napalm This poem is also for a generation of American men and women who feel survivor's guilt. At the time, I was really angry in the aftermath of that talk. Unencumbered by history 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. Substitute Afghanistan for Vietnam and it is current.I am posting this today (Election Day) after reading an article in the NYT about what patriotism means to Democrats and Republicans. "My appreciation for my father's greatness cannot be measured.". he was the has retaken thetrenches. pity youMartha!. Saigon falls to northern forces. The jungle/loaded, nobody/comes away in one piece. And in Coming Home, henotices: Someone has stacked his books, It temains as relevant today as it did then. It also introduced a handful of good newcomers. I had read it when it was first published in 1996 and it has stuck with me, as has the utterly savage U.S. war against Vietnam that killed so many millions, what the Vietnamese call The American War. Korea produced almost nothing at all. He must be destroyed!Martin said, That antenna was like a kill me sign.Plus, I was 62, and the Vietnamese are typically about 56, Duffy said.The air strikes he called in were the only thing keeping badly-outnumbered South Vietnamese troops from being overrun. It is inscribed inaccurately on a memorial stone at the Northport VA Medical Center. 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. I am the last person you will see. 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. But there is finally here, in these poems, a remarkable promise of hope, a refusal to forget the past and go on, willfully oblivious to history or the lessons that ought to have been learned. 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. Today, comfort and teaching themselves deceive 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. 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. Of credulous hearts, in heavensuch are but taking. Only six of these 34 poems, in fact, deal with Vietnam, two others referring to the war in passing. all his buddies listened, for they knew whereof he spoke. that as we grow old, we will not grow evil, 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. . so full ofducks. This will always be light Fred was a selfless and wonderful young man. when blood was spilled on my 214. bloody papers I carry through life. War Poems by Vietnam Veterans, a $1.95 olive-drab paperback put . So, basically you had accepted the fact that you were going to die?. 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. I am of the same generation as Harris, the courageous draft resister and anti-war campaigner who died on February 6. skillful and practiced of the soldier-poets. and he sat around the Legion, telling stories of the past. Even the government turned its back on its soldiers, openly repudiating those who came to protest the war, ignoring those who didnt. You know now that your life if ( 'querySelector' in document && 'addEventListener' in window ) { Wets her face. Monopoly es el juego de mesa favorito de Estados Unidos, una carta de amor al capitalismo desenfrenado y a nuestra sociedad de libre mercado. "God Has Pity on Kindergarten Children" by Yehuda Amichai. a way to throw off thedead. No one couldve expected more from them. What else can we do? 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. Moreover, for the most part, soldiers will fight and kill willingly only if they find that reason believable. and ducks that others feed. They were fighting for what they believed in. her eyes *** Progress was measured in grisly official body counts, and any dead Vietnamese was a Viet Cong. 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. Target him! Powell "Daymare" by Dave King 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 Duffy was the lone American advisor to a battalion of South Vietnamese paratroopers sent to hold Fire Base Charlie. While many of these writers might be loath to call themselves antiwar poets, few if any have anything good to say about their experience inVietnam. We were home finally going home. the long line of theirvowels. We were fighting for what we believed in. Ehrhart (image on the left), was aptly called Carrying the Darkness. 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. Across my chest It wont matter then to me but now 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". For when countries are in conflict, then we find the Soldier's part. Along with Virgil Suarez and Victor Hernandez Cruz, Quintana co-editedPaper Dance: 55 Latino Poets. Idly. At her. You get the wonder, the joy, the tender moments - and you get the tears at the end, too.". Oct. 7, 2012. Should you find yourself in danger, with your enemies at hand. It died Eases, and your pain, andmine. It had a profound impact on me. Who waits in waves of heat before her. You're far from home. he learned to pay much closer watch Sign in|Recent Site Activity|Report Abuse|Print Page|Powered By Google Sites. A sergeant said Pass me the salt, boy We landed at Ft. Lewis, hang around as a big dark cloud. He aims. In 227 very short and often bleakly humorous poems, Layne traces the life of his fictional Audie Murphy from birth through childhood to enlistment in the Marines, then boot camp, a tour of duty in Vietnamincluding capture by the North Vietnameseand finally home again. the Air Force, and Marines died in the jungles of South Vietnam While outside of country, the world moved on. One night frightening scores of them It was getting a little dicey! Duffy replied. Like the Wall, Scruggs said, Finks poem addresses the loss that so many veterans felt and still feel. We were fighting for what we believed in. He had been in Vietnam only weeks, but was already weary from the tension of war. An estimated 2 million Vietnamese civilians were killed, and 58,000 US soldiers died in action. 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. The American people turned their backs on the war long before it ended. to the microphone Neither Paquet nor Casey ever published any additional poetry, to my knowledge, after 1972. rhapsody, They were fighting for what they believed in. 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. Consequently, I have INDIAN LITERATURE (IL, 259), the flagship journal of Sahitya Akademi He died doing what he felt was right. This was not the first appearance of poems dealing with the Vietnam war to be written by soldiers who helped to fight that war. Like its predecessor, DMZ contained much that relied on emotion rather than craft. He was getting old and paunchy and his hair was falling fast. his cooplike, concrete sentry perched mid-bridge destined to live my life with stress. was where we thawed. The penis in the air March 30, 2022 7:00 AM EDT. rocks its weight, A woman kneels on deck You look quickly around you: Past the olive drab On a rain-soaked day such as this Soon it will be here,It seems strange no more. But Winning Hearts and Minds quickly became a classic: the seminal anthology against which all future Vietnam war poetry would bejudged. on a rain-soaked day such as this. Duffy started writing the poem a week later, and has been adding to it ever since. I am a farmer and I know what I know. 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. Bruce Weigl had already demonstrated his mastery of other subjects and other themes in A Romance, and his newest collection, The Monkey Wars (University of Georgia, 1985), gives further proof of his considerable talents. 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. but the passing of a soldier, goes unnoticed, and unsung. no dead bulb gonna rise this May Balaban is an anomaly: a soldier-poet who was not a soldier; indeed, he opposed the war and became a conscientious objector. His 2019 novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, followed a boy who, like Vuong, is an immigrant from Vietnam. I stood there not so long ago. You have stopped for a break, stand up Her hands reaching for the no one With some notable exceptions, they were artless poems, lacking skill and polish, but collectively they had the force of a wreckingball. to a corporal, and he did. - Earnest Hemingway, (18991961). I will stay with you until you stay with me. Some keep on walking I was so outraged that so many were nodding in approval, Fink said. In Farmers Song at Can Tho, hewrites: What is a man but a farmer Charles Fink leads Our Lady of Snow Roman Catholic Church in Blue Point. On a rain-soaked day such as this. Some adults stare too as men whose duty it was to kill me filed by. was ourvillage. I don't think I like war anymore. 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}Copy that.Of the 471 men committed,I came out after two weeks of intense battlewith 36 surviving,most of them had been wounded.Duffy started writing the poem a week later, and has been adding to it ever since.No one won on Charlie;Each side managed to lose. 'On Getting Out of Vietnam' was written in 1972 and was included in Nemerov's award-winning book of poetry, The Collected Poems of Howard Nemerov, published in 1977.The title clearly hints at the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam during 1970-1973. 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.. There is no escape. Men taught to believe that American soldiers handed out candy to kids found themselves killing and being killed by those very kids. These poems are available in a book format. I have watched children starve from my golden towers. "Dulce Et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen. warped it out of place South Vietnamese Prime Minister Diem is overthrown. and sent to the Mess Hall, choice USA steaks. Story produced by Mary Walsh. Navy Crosses on my Face. Nguyen Chi Thien, Whose Poems Spoke Truth to Power, From a Cell, Dies at 73. ***, Im tired of the rice Zambia. the sad smile she alreadyhas. Don't wait to tell the important people in your life how you feel about them, do it right away. But his presence should remind us, we may need his like again. Surely, in the process of trying, the best of them have added immeasurably to the body and soul of Americanpoetry. Who in the Only a little more than a yard away Armed Forces Recruitment Day Sign up for the American Experience newsletter! Then, he sums up his own career, starting as a 17-year-old private and ending as a major with four combat tours.I guess I did well:Not having gone to Hell. Editor: Ed Givnish. A plane that was to take Duffy was the lone American advisor to a battalion of South Vietnamese paratroopers sent to hold Fire Base Charlie. shivering uncontrollably in the mud. I am the last person you will touch. It don't mean nothing. 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