War Veteran Poetry

click

Click, Only a noise

What do you hear?

Is it door closing?

Is it a car door unlocking?

Maybe something else from your past

Maybe the sound of your Dad’s tackle box

What do I hear

The sound of a bolt chambering a round

Meaning it is time to step outside the wire

Time for all my senses to kick into overdrive

Maybe the sound of a 50 CAL Machine gun

As it miss fires, leaving us defenseless

Against all possible means of attack

Be it Rocket propelled grenades, maybe machine gun fire

Maybe it is an IED,or a more deadly EFP

Explosively Formed Projectile,

Able to pierce the thickest armor

This momentary pause while the gunner fixes the “Click”

Could mean my entire crew is killed or wounded.

My heart skips a beat.

Now I am home and a click is really a click

How do forget the click has many meanings

Click does not mean “BOOM”

-Iraq war veteran

 

WHAM excerpt

I am reading a wonderful book of poetry called “Winning Hearts and Minds: War Poems by Vietnam Veterans. I love the endnote on the book that calls for readers to, as we say in the virtual world, share widely.

One of the poems has inspired an idea for a painting, so I would like to post it:

An Outpost Near Cambodia, July 1969

There are lizards on the walls, candlelight
Shadows, we are silhouetted vaguely.
Rain on the tin roof. A naked baby
Views us from his mother’s grasp
Unkempt soldiers of Long Hoa compound drink
Rice whiskey talking of skirmishes past
The rumble of distant thunder; the blast
Of defensive guns and darkness and then –
The radio stutters of an ambush to the west
The rivulets of rain are running blackly.
Yet slogging footsteps in the compound square
Will rest behind a poncho-covered door:
A squad of dripping, muddy soldiers glad
To share an oxen’s stall.
-James Boyer

Something about the small simple comfort of a candle and huddling together in close quarters on a rainy night speaks of the vulnerability of the human being in the theatre of war. As the United Nations debate the possibility of launching a new war, and the leaders of both Canada and the USA support a military strike in Syria, I will post reminders of what war brings to the world, through the eyes of soldiers, from the pages of this book.

About this project on war veterans:

2012

Hello to all Canadian and American war veterans. I am a painter from Montreal, Quebec who is currently recruiting subjects to take part in a painting series that I will be completing for my Master of Fine Arts at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. In exchange for your participation in this project, I would like to offer to you any preparatory sketches, drawings, or paintings that I produce towards the finished project.

I wish to begin by meeting with you (if feasible) to conduct informal interviews (not for the record), just to get to know a bit about you. I can also chat with you by phone or skype before having you sit for a brief photo shoot, if at all possible. I often paint from photo references, so I am also interested in looking at and possibly using photos you may have of your time in service in the theatre of combat.

I am open to receiving testimonials from soldiers, marines or members of the air-force who might be willing to share something of their experience, whether in the theatre of war, or upon the return home. I would be interested to know any details that you would feel comfortable sharing as this information will inform my painting and my portrayal or your character.

Your family background is also of interest to me: what part of Canada or the US do you come from? What motivated you to join the military, marines or air-force? Do your family members also have a history of military service?

All of your personal details will be kept strictly confidential, unless you are willing to tell your story to a public. Within my own family, my cousin has served in Afghanistan on three separate tours.

It would also be most helpful if you could refer me to other people who have wartime experience in the military. I am mostly interested people who have served in the Afghan, Iraq, Vietnam wars, but am equally interested in WW II veterans.

You can contact me at the following email address:

brisson.judith@gmail.com