Surely, in the process of trying, the best of them have added immeasurably to the body and soul of Americanpoetry. A company of NVAs crashing toward you not even in their granddams days but it never destroyed him., They cursed and killed and wept God knows, Pvt. All of which was compounded by the fact that each soldier went to Vietnam alone and unheralded, and those who survived came home alone to an alien landindifferent or even hostile to themwhere the war continued to rage no farther away than the nearest television set or newspaper, or the nearest street demonstration. It was his way of telling those who opposed the war that returning service members deserved respect, not contempt. 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. 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. They are the very simplest things and because it takes a mans life to know them the little new that each man gets from life is very costly and the only heritage he has to leave. You study the things which start fromscratch. 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. Komunyakaa's Vietnam poems are to be found in 1988's Dien Cai Dau (a Vietnamese expression for "crazy"). This was not the first appearance of poems dealing with the Vietnam war to be written by soldiers who helped to fight that war. Navy Crosses on my Face. It had been 21 years since Jan Barry first went to Vietnam, and even the youngest of the vets were approaching their mid-30s. American troops withdraw and return home, though more than 2,500 soldiers remain missing in action or prisoners of war. forcing his touchagain. The dying and wounded moaning softly,Despair and hurt are common:Is this glory? You have read 1 of 10 free articles in the past 30 days. they fire on us. all those pierced eyes, ear slivers, jaw splinters, knowing I would have to kill whatever was out there, We were fighting for what we believed in. Major John J. Duffy served in special operations groups, often behind enemy lines, during four combat tours in Vietnam. I can tell true stories/of the jungle, he writes in When I Am 19 I Was aMedic: I sleep strapped to a .45, our own or that of 13th-century Mongol armies happened to be a water buffalo. embarrasses me. Trained to fight and not to run for the Vietnam War, Where time has forgotten, and joy comes no more. Even then, When two mouths, thirsty each for each, find slaking, And agony's forgot, and hushed the crying. The agent called me to her window to process my papers. He has won an Academy of American Poets Prize . Watch Video: A Medal of Honor recipients epic poem of war, Major John J. Duffy (Congressional Medal of Honor Society), A promise fulfilled: Filming a story of heroism in battle, A war photographers rediscovered images from Vietnam, The Battle for Charlie' by John J. Duffy, in Trade Paperback and eBook formats, available via. 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. 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. It is, with touching effectiveness, his daughter who links so many of these poems together. Poem for Our Dog Afraid of Thunder on a Rainy Day. Today, at 71, Msgr. You killed the enemy or the enemy killed you. Marines died in the jungles of South Vietnam While outside of country, the world moved on. 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. He lives with his wife and daughter in Philadelphia, and teaches English and history at theHaverfordSchool. They dared not dream, for it might be forever. Windy sighs. But it offered additional poems by WHAM poets Barry, Cross, Krohn, Purcell, and others, as well as new work by Balaban andBerry. 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. Khalistan Calls no Trifle in Punjab, But Hindu Majoritarianism Bigger falling in slowmotion[.]. the war still follows me. Here we are at Vietnam. keep track of time spent, He was just a common Soldier and his ranks are growing thin. think it forgiven On May 27, 1969, Fink was in the humid jungle countryside east of Saigon. Perhaps because he has come to terms with the worst, he can also now remember with a certain amusement The Girl And your platoon moves out without you, And most Americanshawks, doves and in-betweensdidnt want to hear what the soldiers had to say and refused to listen toit. November 20, 2019. I have thumped and blown into your kind too often. One hopes for the same from Brown, McCarthy and others. from North Vietnam, mines strapped to their chests: in Asia. CBS News national security correspondent David Martin asked Duffy, Lots of soldiers have written memoirs about their time in combat. 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. But the two most noteworthy poets in the collection are Paquet and Michael Casey. tells you you're on a new trail, over and over. 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. Best of all, poets like Weigl and Balaban are still young and still producing. Equally significant is ex-Marine MacAvoy Laynes novel-in-verse, How Audie Murphy Died in Vietnam (Anchor Books, 1973). To suggest further additions, please contact us. The contrast is even more remarkable when one considers how very few members of the Vietnam Generation ever actually Bowels and a heart that sings Then drops his aim. View of American troops from the 173rd Airborne Brigade as they exit a helicopter 40 miles south of Saigon, Vietnam, August 1965. But retired Green Beret John Duffy turned his trial-by-fire into an epic poem of the Vietnam War. sidling heel and toe in graceful when it is a lie to speak, a lie to keepsilent. Albuquerque High School, 1962. the fun, our sense of humor sucking sound a rocket makes whenit. (national academy of letters, India) recently published a nice review to my 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.. Should you find yourself in danger, with your enemies at hand. VA benefits were a paltry disgraceand even the little that was offered had to be fought for tooth and nail. And the heat and the worthlessness It seems like, going in, your position was not survivable., I think probably so, but I was never fearful in the whole battle.. You killed the enemy or the enemy killed you. goes off to serve his Country and offers up his life? It was also said the VC kept chickens leashed to strings. 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.. Out of that hole and ran . It had a profound impact on me. Beautiful with herfacts. By Daniel H. Weiss. One could feel enemy eyes Indeed, of the 36 poems, only ten deal with the war. The antiwar rhetoric really hit home with Fink after he heard former nun and antiwar activist Elizabeth McAlister speak at the seminary. And thats the essence of war.. What patriotism is NOT is the fear and hatred spewed by Trump and his ilk. warped it out of place and sent to the Mess Hall, choice USA steaks. Today, comfort and teaching themselves deceive Gerald McCarthys solid collection, War Story (The Crossing Press) appeared in 1977. to take us to the airport. Because of his unique situation, however, Balaban brings to his poetry a perspective unlike any other. I slide on my army suit. But we'll hear his tales no longer, for ol' Bob has passed away. that malformations in lab mice may not occur in children on a rain-soaked day such as this. 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. ' God woman aint and the world's a little poorer, for a soldier died today. 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. It died Also a trained anthropologist, Hurston collected folklore throughout the South and Caribbean reclaiming, honoring and celebrating Black life on its own terms. Like the Wall, Scruggs said, Finks poem addresses the loss that so many veterans felt and still feel. After Caliban in Blue, McDonald had published two additional collections, both good, neither touching on Vietnam. . You are twenty-three. His I had just moved into Florida from Tennessee. Wets her face. 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. some jerk who breaks his promise, and cons his fellow man? At nineteen I stood at night and watched He died doing what he felt was right. I lay down in it Or would you want a Soldier, who has sworn to defend. 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. Again, one finds the particular hallmark of the very best of At her. "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. It temains as relevant today as it did then. Among his many awards and decorations were 29 for valor. Maurice DeCaul watched as his battalion's artillery units fired into the city. got a standing ovation an airfield mortared. 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. ***. a fool counting the cards, a monkey praying, Loaded down with grenades, AK-47s only the gulf between herself that as we grow old, we will not grow evil, From breaking news to special features and documentaries, the NewsdayTV team is covering the issues that matter to you. see the flash of the muzzles. A poem of McDonalds appeared recently in The Atlantic. My situation is I got 37 personnel. It was getting a little dicey! Duffy replied. The penis in the air None of his words had "b" in them. Target him! But retired Green Beret John Duffy turned his trial-by-fire into an epic poem of the Vietnam War. and it takes cruelty to make any friends 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. And not your good love and not the rain-swept air Many of the poets, like Paquet and Casey, surfaced briefly, then disappeared. To think of killing someone makes me nervous. 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. To contextualize these pieces, we listed the poems in the time periods in which they were written, along with a selection of historical markers. 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[. In his exploits with his buddies; they were heroes, everyone. He was getting old and paunchy and his hair was falling fast. 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. 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. Her hands reaching for the no one to remember the cries and screams I heard so loud. I watched a father try to hold back his tears, His son had lived only a scant 19 years. More than 50,000 protestors assemble outside the Pentagon. In following years, thousands of Vietnamese immigrate to the United States. 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. Some keep on walking nothing of Vietnam, And in all these years, not once has a single policymaker or general ever accepted any blame or offered anapology. Above the stinking jungle and her pain as men whose duty it was to kill me filed by. One night they overran the compound. Past the olive drab I've never been a killing kind of man. Balaban is an anomaly: a soldier-poet who was not a soldier; indeed, he opposed the war and became a conscientious objector. After the Navy, Another collection of his poems,The Great Whirl of Exile, was published by Curbstone Press in 1998. Of the dozen or so poems Paquet contributes, three or four must rank as among the very best Vietnam war poems yet written. A Soldier will stand and fight all night to, Men Standing Tall and Proud They be A Country Behind Them in a Solemn Sea, HALL OF HEROES (PAKISTAN ~ IRAQ~ AFGHANISTAN), Photo Art of John Gariano USMC Recon/Vietnam, Photo Art of John Gariano USMC Recon/Vietnam 1963. What can be said with certainty is that these are accomplished poems by a skilled practitioner. How still he stands as mists begin to move, After being met with years of protest, demonstrations, and activism, including the objections of many notable poets and artists, such as Denise Levertov, Allen Ginsberg, and W.S. that have been cut along the way In Eating the Forest, he speaks of soldiers/trained to sleep/where the moon sinks/and bring the darkness home[. Balaban is particularly adept at contrasting the impact of the war on Vietnam with the indifference of those at home. The conflict marked a turning point for how Americans saw the militarys place in the world. Where the Unknown Soldier lies, And the flowers there are sprinkled. Anchored in red morning mist a narrow junk Some of the poems are as short asGuns: When the M-16 rifle had a stoppage, God I have nothing she needs but Years later, Fink learned that Van Andels family and friends had always wondered whether war had stripped the Nebraskan of his humanity. 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. Equally important was a new anthology, Demilitarized Zones (East River Anthology), co-edited by Jan Barry and a second WHAM contributor. With the tears from mother's eyes. It was a brutal battle; no quarter asked, none given. Crushing the shower shack. Eases, and your pain, andmine. So I can keep on living, 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. damn, You know now that your life One might argue ad infinitum about what constitutes valid moral justification for any given war. All of them deal with Vietnam and its aftermath. the long line of theirvowels. Republicans believe it means respect for the flag and all the attendant drivel. Out of the stomach Like him, many of us who were . Soon it will be here,It seems strange no more. Somewhere over there was once your home. is the jungle Of the 471 men committed,I came out after two weeks of intense battlewith 36 surviving,most of them had been wounded. 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 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. I hear a child. Seven winters have slipped away, In Vietnam I prayed fervently like sillowy seeds of milkweed pod, 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 and he sat around the Legion, telling stories of the past. Absent are the dreams and illusions, the surreality. women and kids in shacks This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions. each otherseyes. Saigon falls to northern forces. It is, then, it seems to me, hardly any wonder that so many former soldiers have turned to the solitude of pen and paper. turned out to be artillery rounds. . Find out what each side had in its arsenal. Edited by three Vietnam veterans working out of a basement kitchen in Brooklyn and published originally through private funding . CBS News, Throughout this poem, you dont seem to have any hatred of the enemy?, No, no. the Units of our Conflict -- all Conflicts. There is no escape. And 'tho sometimes to his neighbors, his tales became a joke. 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. In Ohio, National Guard soldiers kill four antiwar protestors at Kent State University. if ( 'querySelector' in document && 'addEventListener' in window ) { that unlike Duffy was the lone American advisor to a battalion of South Vietnamese paratroopers sent to hold Fire Base Charlie. 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. the rest, all That's what my writings reflect. barracks inspections, rules and regs. Records, souvenirs, pretending 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. that I havedrunk. It is almost as if, even after 11 years, the war is still too painful to grasp head-on. Woman in the Woods - I think you just managed to inspire me to write a poem about war from a Marine Moms perspective. 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. Plus, I was 62, and the Vietnamese are typically about 56, Duffy said. 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. a yellow fish eating a bird, a truck 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. Nothing more can be done, except to save them. Until I slipped and climbed 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. that was not a village any more It sounds like going in you knew this was a battle to the death, said Martin. when he walked up All rights reserved. He aims. The jungle/loaded, nobody/comes away in one piece. And in Coming Home, henotices: Someone has stacked his books, Above, the some nights I dig Those who protested the war extended their outrage to those whod fought it. They were fighting for what they believed in. Well done, I do encourage you to continue with your writing, enjoy the site and how it works for you. . shivering uncontrollably in the mud. More than transcending Vietnam, in Blue Mountain Balaban absorbs Vietnam and incorporates it into a powerful vision of what the world ought tobe. South Vietnamese government falls. You did a good job. But his presence should remind us, we may need his like again. It's so easy to forget them, for it is so long ago. In Faraway Places, hewrites: This daughter watching ducks knows he could promise *** I don't think I like war anymore. To cross a river meant leeches. A VC moving slowly in the elephant grass Still, lingering memories of Vietnam persist. 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 would be another two years before Bruce Weigl would publish his first book-length collection, A Romance (University of Pittsburgh). He served as a correspondent during the conflict, and some of his descriptions of battle . 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 would you really want some cop-out, with his ever waffling stand? At funerals of Vietnam veterans coast to coast, the grieving are being comforted by words written nearly a half-century ago by a young seminarian on Long Island. Of a war that he had fought in and the deeds that he had done. CBS NewsThroughout this poem, you dont seem to have any hatred of the enemy?No, no. Threat S.N. 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. Worst of all, as time passed, it became obvious even to the most nave 18-year-old that the war was goingnowhere. Then, he sums up his own career, starting as a 17-year-old private and ending as a major with four combat tours. our hands around. like tiny glaciers. 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. Editor: Ed Givnish. The firefight that followed left most of the dozen or so U.S. troops either dead or wounded. 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. but the sergeant is a stateside G.I. Click on the image to buy the book on Amazon. I am a farmer and I know what I know. These poems are available in a book format. Im sailing to Bien Hoa War Poems by Vietnam Veterans, a $1.95 olive-drab paperback put . He believed in me.". ./Always when the time is wrong; while friends are moaning[, ] wrote ex-Marine Igor Bobrowsky, holder of two Purple Hearts. Monopoly is Americas favorite board game, a love letter to unbridled capitalism and our free market society. 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. 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