Selected poetry works

At each of our Waging Peace events, we make an effort to begin with anti-war poetry as it is a powerful way to frame our academic presentations. Here, we share some of the beauty and significance of our contributing poets and their works.

 

Selected poetry works by a range of poets including Jan Barry, Teresa Mei Chuc, Wayne Karlin, Yusef Komunyakaa, Hoa Nguyen, Kimberly Nguyen, Doug Rawlings, and Bruce Weigl were presented at a gathering at the University of Colorado- Boulder, organized as part of a series of events coinciding with the display of the Waging Peace in Vietnam exhibit on campus.

 
 

Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet and Vietnam veteran Yusef Komunyakaa shares his poem, “Facing It,” which deals with the personal angst of the speaker, a Vietnam veteran, who is visiting the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C. Komunyakaa’s poem, “Fragging,” appears in Waging Peace in Vietnam.

Jan Barry is a poet and author whose books include Earth Songs (iUniverse, 2003), Life after War & Other Poems (Combat Paper Press, 2012) and (co-editor) Winning Hearts & Minds: War Poems by Vietnam Veterans (McGraw-Hill, 1972). A U.S. Army veteran of Vietnam, he coordinates Warrior Writers workshops and programs for veterans and family members in New Jersey.
Lamont B. Steptoe, a Vietnam veteran, is a poet, photographer and publisher. He is author of eight books of poetry including Mad Minute (Whirlwind Press, 1993) Uncle’s South China Sea Blue Nightmare (Plan B Press, 2003) and Dusty Road (Whirlwind Press, 1995).
David Connolly served with the Army’s 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment in Vietnam.  He is proud to be a Vietnam Veteran Against the War. His book Lost in America was published in 1994 by Vietnam Generation Press.
W. D. Ehrhart is a Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War and a life member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War.  His most recent book is Thank You for Your Service: Collected Poems, (McFarland & Company, Inc., 2019).
Doug Rawlings, a Founder of Veterans For Peace, served in Vietnam for 411 days and nights, from July 1969 to August 1970. He returned confused, angry and “somewhat lost.” A few months later he found a collection of poems by Denise Levertov that captured her journey to North Viet Nam as a peace activist. Doug writes: This was the first serious “discussion” I had read from and about “my” war. And true to what Robert Bly considers effective political poetry, Levertov used the personal to open up the universal. I was captured, and unlike my response to military “service,” I did not want to escape. Instead, I sought out more of her work and other poets and, eventually, began to write my own poems.