Vietnam War Poetry: Wild Horses

Wild Horses by Marc Swan

Standing before the Wall
Michael's hook captures
the orange fire of dusk
raised high
in a smart salute
to a time in his life
to this day
he doesn't understand

The quietly grazing
water buffalo
he felled
with a single shot

Wild horses
running in a pack
singled out
and cut down
with the puncture
of his bayonet

A solitary figure
working a patch
of desecrated soil
spun completely around
by the rap beat of his m60
as a snowy white egret
flew straight ahead
into the morning light

Vietnam War Poetry: Hopper

Hopper by Leroy Quintana

Hopper came twice within a step of dying
Once was in Brooklyn while working as a hodcarrier
fifty stories up
The people below small as insects
when the scaffolding teeter-tottered under him suddenly
The second time was in the Nam,
bullets whispering violently by
as he pushed himself as deeply as possible
against the ground
Fifty stories below
the smallest of insects as large as automobiles
darting on a blade of grass

Vietnam War Poetry: A Hum in the Living Room

A Hum in the Living Room by Lenard D. Moore

One morning Daddy, just home from Vietnam,
came in the living room and sat in his chair.
I sat waiting on the shabby stool,
hair clippers in my hand.
I turned the clippers on
before handing it to him.
It hummed like honeybees.
He jerked back against the chair.
It was the first time
he'd heard it hum in a year.
How terrible to see his face turn red,
and hear him gasping.
He gradually straightened up,
asked me to hold my head still,
and considered the part he wanted to cut.
I turned around on the stool,
frightened, squinting,
dreading the next haircut.

Vietnam War Poetry: The Dreamers

The Dreamers by Peter Desy

Combat is all right if the other men
are dark or lighter. If the women
are hairy, this will ease our

burden, such animals are they.
If they live in huts with no power
lines, this is another plus.







                   * * *
Always bomb the bridges, the walkways
of persistent memories, linking lives
and times, under which the moon floats,

starting human dreams. The other
learning placesin and under trees,
in sleeping places, at the edges of gardens

the private sanctuaries of desire or
fascination; strafe these,
with our blonde eyes on the spidery

cross hairs of sights with dead centers,
these places where hamburgers and pizza
have yet to be invented.

Their brown-eyed, dark-skinned gods
won't interfere. Our god of light
stands with a flashing sword

we've forged from gold and given
others like it to the marines, each
with one foot on a beach somewhere.

We might be afraid they could dream
us away, the way we left off dreaming,
because we were afraid

of the worst dream of all,
that we've stopped living,
that there's something we've forgotten.

Vietnam War Poetry: A Grand Laying of Hands

A Grand Laying of Hands by David L. Erben

I have seen but not believed.
summer might as well
not have been. strangely,
autumn follows spring.

a child's song edges
into cries of the kestrel.
voices within the sea's heaving chrysalis
mount to a dirge lifting on the wind.
at last, a grand laying on of hands
reaches me, wandering
fallen buildings.

I place this broken spirit
on an ancient altar of stone,
and press my face.

Age of Sail Reading List

One of my twitter followers was looking for a selection of reading about navies during the Age of Sail. This list is adapted from Dr. John Beeler's Proseminar in Naval History and Strategic Thought, and represents a significantly truncated version of the suggested readings for the part of the course dealing with galleys and sailing ships. I've not included journal articles because many people don't have access to subscription databases. Also, since this list is now several years old, it does not represent the most recent releases in naval history for the 16th-19th centuries. If anyone has suggestions for newer materials, I'd be very interested in them.

The Shape and Armament of Sailing Warships

Carlo Cipolla, Guns, Sails, and Empires: Technological Innovation and the Early Phase of European Expansion.

David Davies, Fighting Ships of the Line 1793-1815.

F. Fox, Great Ships: The Battlefleet of King Charles II.

Ian Friel, The Good Ship: Ships, Shipbuilding and Technology in England, 1200-1520.

Peter Kirsch, The Galleon: The Great Ships of the Armada Era.

N. A. M. Rodger, The Safeguard of the Sea: A Naval History of Britain, 600-1649. chaps. 5, 12, 16.

Geoffrey Parker, The Military Revolution, Chapter 3.

Naval Warfare in the Age of Sail: The Strategic/Policy Level

Jaap R. Bruijn, The Dutch Navy of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.

Jan Glete, Navies and Nations: Warships, Navies, and State Building in Europe and America.

Alfred Thayer Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power on History, 1660-1783.

Herbert Richmond, The Navy as an Instrument of Policy 1558-1727.

K. R. Andrews, Trade, Plunder and Settlement: Maritime Enterprise and the Genesis of the British Empire, 1480-1650.

G.N. Clark, The Dutch Alliance and the War against French Trade, 1688-1697.

Carla Rahn Phillips, Six Galleons for the King of Spain: Imperial Defence in the Seventeenth Century.

Geoffrey Symcox, The Crisis of Sea Power: The French Navy in the Nine Years' War.

Janice Thomson, Mercenaries, Pirates and Sovereigns: State-building and Extra-territorial violence in Early Modern Europe.

Charles Wilson, Profit and Power: A Study of England and the Dutch Wars.

Jeremy Black and Philip Woodfine (eds.), The British Navy and the Use of Naval Power in the Eighteenth

Century.

Patrick Crowhurst, The Defence of British Trade, 1689-1815.

Jonathan Dull, The French Navy and American Independence: A Study of Arms and Diplomacy, 1774-1787.(E265.D8)

Richard Glover, "The French Fleet, 1807-1814: Britain's Problem and Madison's Opportunity," Journal of Modern History 39 (1967), 233-52.

Gerald Graham, Empire of the North Atlantic.

Nabil Matar, Britain and Barbary, 1589-1689.

Neil Stout, The Royal Navy in America, 1760-1775.

Nicholas Tracy, Navies, Deterrence, and American Independence: Britain and Sea Power in the 1760s and

1770s.

Naval Warfare in the Age of Sail: The Operational Level

Max Adams, Admiral Collingwood: Nelson’s Own Hero.

R.C. Anderson, Naval Wars in the Baltic, 1522-1850.

M. Baumber, General-at-Sea: Robert Blake and the Seventeenth Century Revolution in Naval Warfare.

Roderick Cavaliero, Admiral Satan: The Life and Campaigns of Suffren, Scourge of the Royal Navy.

Julian Corbett, The Campaign of Trafalgar.

Michael Duffy, Soldiers, Sugar and Sea Power: The British Expeditions to the West Indies and the War Against Revolutionary France.

Michael Duffy and Roger Morriss (eds.), The Glorious First of June 1794: A Naval Battle and its Aftermath.

R.P. Fereday, Saint-Faust in the North 1803-1804: Orkney and Shetland in Danger.

Robert Gandiner, Fleet, Battle and Blockade: The French Revolutionary War, 1793-1797.

Richard Harding, Amphibious Warfare in the Eighteenth century: The British Expedition to the West Indies, 1740-1742.

Christopher Lloyd, English Corsairs on the Barbary Coast.

Kevin McCranie, Admiral Lord Keith and the Naval War Against Napoleon.

Geoffrey J. Marcus, Heart of Oak: A Survey of British Sea Power in the Georgian Era.

Carla Rahn Phillips, The Short Life of an Unlucky Spanish Galleon: Los Tres Reyes, 1628-1634.

Marshal Smelser, The Campaign for the Sugar Islands, 1759.(F2151.S65)

Richard Spence, The Privateering Earl: George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland 1558-1605.

David Spinney, Rodney.

Carl Swanson, Predators and Prizes: American Privateering and Imperial Warfare, 1739-48.

W.C.B. Tunstall (ed. Nicholas Tracy), Naval Warfare in the Age of Sail: The Evolution of Fighting Tactics, 1650-1815.(V27.T8)

The Early American Navy: Strategy and Policy

Clayton Barrow (ed.), America Spreads her Sails: U.S. Seapower in the Nineteenth Century.

James Bradford (ed.), Command Under Sail: Makers of the American Naval Tradition, 1775-1850.

Thomas Bryson, Tars, Turks, and Tankers: The Role of the United States Navy in the Middle East, 1800-1879.

Donald Chidsey, The Wars in Barbary: Arab Piracy and the Birth of the United States Navy.

Alexander DeConde, The Quasi-War.

Robert E. Johnson, Far China Station: The U.S. Navy in Asian Waters, 1800-1898.

Michael Palmer, Stoddert's War: Naval Operations during the Quasi-War.

Charles Oscar Paullin, Diplomatic Negotiations of American Navy Officers, 1778-1883.

Vincent Ponko, Ships, Seas, and Scientists: U.S. Naval Exploration and Discovery in the Nineteenth Century.

John Schroeder, Shaping a Maritime Empire: The Commercial and Diplomatic Role of the United States Navy, 1829-1861.

Raymond Shoemaker, Diplomacy from the Quarterdeck: The United States Navy in the Caribbean, 1815-1830.

Spencer Tucker, The Jeffersonian Gunboat Navy.

The Early American Navy: Operations

Gardner Allen, A Naval History of the American Revolution.

K. Jack Bauer, Surfboats and Horse Marines: U.S. Naval Operations in the Mexican War, 1846-1848.

George Buker, Swamp Sailors: Riverine Warfare in the Everglades, 1835-1842.

Howard Chapelle, The History of the American Sailing Navy.

Jack Coggins, Ships and Seamen of the American Revolution.

Wade G. Dudley, Splintering the Wooden Wall: The British Blockade of the United States, 1812-1815.

R. Blake Dunnavent, Brown Water Warfare: The U.S. Navy in Riverine Warfare and the Emergence of a Tactical Doctrine, 1775-1970

Eugene Ferguson, Truxtun of the Constellation.

William Fowler, Jack Tars and Commodores: The American Navy, 1783-1815.

Chester Hearn, George Washington's Schooners: The First American Navy.

Tyrone Martin, A Most Fortunate Ship: A Narrative History of Old Ironsides.

David Syrett, Shipping and the American War, 1775-1783.

Naval Infrastructure and Administration in the Age of Sail

Robert G. Albion. Forests and Sea Power: The Timber Problem of the Royal Navy, 1652-1862.

Paul Bamford, Forests and French Sea Power, 1660-1789.

Nicholas A.M. Rodger, The Admiralty.

Daniel Baugh, British Naval Administration in the Age of Walpole.

Stephen Gradish, The Manning of the British Navy During the Seven Years War.

Richard Harding, The Evolution of the Sailing Navy, 1509-1815.

Roger Morriss, The Royal Dockyards during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

________. Naval Power and British Culture, 1760-1850:  Public Trust and Government.

Vietnam War Poetry: Nothing Remains

Nothing Remains by Jon Forrest Glade

Almost twenty years after the last helicopter
fled Saigon, nearly two decades after
the last domino fell,
John Balaban reports,
"Whatever we left, nothing remains."
Try to imagine the countryside
without gunships overhead.
The bomb craters have been filled,
planted with eucalyptus and bamboo.
No free fire zones remain.
Forget the chopper pads,
the guardtowers, the sandbag bunkers,
and the foo gas drums
behind the concertina wire.
All perimeters have been breached,
the jungle has reclaimed LZ Bongo
and Ap Bai Mountain is green again.
Unlearn the stench
of human shit burning in diesel.
The afterimages of tracers
should fade from your eyes;
Puff no longer pumps death
from the night time sky.
All that are left are statistics,
letters, photographs, unread books,
television clichés and memories
that howl on sleepless nights.
The American dead are only names
on a long black wall in Washington.
Your friends who survived
are fat and forty, balding and soft,
drink too much in the Legion,
fly POW/MIA flags,
and dwell in their pasts.
What you knew has no juice left
and is as dry
as the white sand dunes of Eagle Beach,
as dry as the pages of history texts.
The spilled blood did not compress
as hard as coal nor as black as oil,
it turned to dust or joined
the dioxin in the soil.
Don't trust your memory,
it plays tricks on you.

"Whatever we left,
nothing remains."

Vietnam War Poetry: Common Ground

Common Ground by Steven W. Gomes

We share common ground
My father and me.
It's a small patch
Of dead grass
In the back yard
Where we throw
The cigarettes
That we smoke
Hidden from my mother
His wife.

We're veterans
Of the same war
Though we don't talk
To each other
About it.

We go to that patch
Of ground
Alone
Hidden from each other.

It's what we share
Instead of words.

Vietnam War Poetry: Five Days Home

Five Days Home by Bill Jones, Jr.

My father and I
Sit in the shade
Of a chinaberry tree
Talk softly of the last good war.
A time of ration cards
And Gold Star Mothers.
"A uniform meant free drinks
And a lot more"
My father says
"But they kept me training pilots
Stateside...
And wouldn't let me go."

In the lower pasture
A phantom chopper whines
Rotors thrash hot wind
As it wobbles upward
With another half-dead cargo.
I blink the image away

"I won't ask if you killed anyone"
My father says
"Because I don't want to know."
Just as well, I think angrily,
My personal count is a little hazy.
Like the pregnant woman at Gio Linh
(She never should have run)
Zapped by a battery of howitzers
Raising puzzling statistical questions.
How do I mark her.
One and a half? Two?
"Drop 100 meters," I whisper.
"Fire for effect."
"Roger that," the RTO replies.

Arm in arm
My father and I
Walk awkwardly toward supper
And the 6 o'clock news.

The chopper drones
Tilts plexiglass nose
To a hospital ship.
The woman at Gio Linh
Seeing her chance
Dashes like a sprinter
Legs pumping furiously
For a stand of scrub oaks
Behind the barn.

"It's a shame," my father says,
Climbing the back steps,
"You didn't get to serve
In a real
War."

Vietnam War Poetry: Faces of Vietnam

Faces of Vietnam by Ken Wolfe

Old faces... but no new faces.

When I'm in Washington DC and in front of that cold black
granite wall with all those names on it I can only think, no,

I can only see their faces, not their names, past faces, their
faces looking back at me. Whose face, their faces.

Of all those names on the wall, I can't match any of those
names with their faces and when I look into those faces I see
my face looking back at me, and my face turning into their
face, which face or whose face.

Their blood dripping from their faces onto my hands, I turn
and face another panel, those other faces with more blood
pouring onto my hands.

I see one face, or two faces, or three faces, when will it end.
How many more faces until it ends.

When I face the wall I now see more faces looking back
at me. My face joining with their faces. Some of those faces I
see but can't see. Why.

I look into that face and I see beyond him into more than
58,000 faces. Some of those faces are VC, for they have
faces too. Their faces whose faces.

A face, a friend's face, or the VCs' faces are coming through
the wall to take me on a long trip to see those in the wall. I
see blood dripping from the wall.... on my buddy's face, on
this place with all those names.

Vietnam War Poetry: Goddamnedvietnam Like Götterdämmerung

Goddamnedvietnam Like Götterdämmerung by Jane Teresa Tassi

Racing eating roses
through lime trees
ceaseless sadnesses
and chinese trees--

I've come to a pond
of young animal. He is
fur and syrup and bullet--

A bomb. Sh, rush. Flute delicate
and warm; has eaten lunch the
size of a swan from the shoulders--

Embalm him with ineffables impalpables
snow, stones
Take him to the mountain bottom.
Leave him for food for the moon.

Vietnam War Poetry: The Guard at the Binh Thuy Bridge

The Guard at the Binh Thuy Bridge by John Balaban

How Still he stands as mists begin to move,
as morning, curling, billows creep across
his cooplike, concrete sentry perched mid-bridge
over mid-muddy river. 
Stares at bush green banks which bristle rifles, mortars, men -- perhaps.
No convoys shake the timbers. No sound but water slapping boat side, bank saides, pilings.
He's slung his carbine barrel down to keep the boring dry, and two banana-clips instead of one are taped to make, now, forty rounds instead of twenty. 
Droplets bead from stock to sight; they bulb, then strike his boot. 
He scrapes his heel, and sees no box bombs floating towards his bridge.
Anchored in red morning mist a narrow junk rocks its weight. 
A woman kneels on deck staring at lapping water. 
Wets her face.
Idly the thick Rach Binh Thuy slides by.
He aims. At her. Then drops his aim. Idly.