Waubonsee Community College

From both sides now, the poetry of the Vietnam War and its aftermath, edited by Phillip Mahony

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poetry

From both sides now

38885416

edited by Phillip Mahony

the poetry of the Vietnam War and its aftermath

A collection of poetry from Vietnamese and American poets about the different experiences each country went through during the Vietnam War

Introduction / by Stanley Karnow -- 1. To bear any burden. "For the memory of Thich Quang Duc" / R. L. Barth ; "For love of another" / Trinh T. Minh-Ha ; "A nun in Ninh Hoa" / Jan Barry ; "When" / J. Vincent Hansen ; "Gulf of Tonkin" / D. C. Berry ; "Flight orders" / Walter McDonald ; "Devotion" / Truong Quoc Khanh (translated by Don Luce, John Schafer, and Jacqui Chagnon) ; "What saves us" / Bruce Weigl ; "Doctor Able" / Peter Ulisse ; "Embarkation" / Walter McDonald ; "Departure" / Xuan Moi (translated by Thanh T. Nguyen and Bruce Weigl) ; "Columns" / Glover Davis ; "On the yellow footprints" / McAvoy Layne ; "Jump school - first day" / Leroy V. Quintana ; "Before going" / Lamont Steptoe ; "Knowledge" / Michael Casey ; "Red horse" / David Widup ; "Untitled" ("so for some unknown reason") / Dick Shea ; "The sea and the sands" / HHT (Translated by Huynh Sanh Thong) ; "Entry" / David Huddle ; "New guy" / Walter McDonald ; "Girl at the Chu Lai Laundry" / Bruce Weigl ; "Pointman" / Jon Forrest Glade ; "Poem of hope" / Thien Ly (translated by Don Luce, John Schafer, and Jacqui Chagnon) ; "First encounter" / Leroy V. Quintana ; "Corporal Thach : first confirmed NVA kill" / David Connolly ; "The First" / Leroy V. Quintana ; "First One" / Jim Nye ; "First casualty" / Kevin Bowen ; "It don't mean nothin" / David Connolly -- 2. Just a touch on the trigger. "Of late" / George Starbuck ; "Norman Morrison" / David Ferguson ; "I kneel down and pray" / Nhat Chi Mai (translated by Don Luce, John Schafer, and Jacqui Chagnon) ; "The insert" / R. L. Barth ; "Taking aim" / Walter McDonald ; "The next step" / W. D. Ehrhart ; "Humpin' through the boonies" / Dale Ritterbusch ; "No slack" / Jim Nye ; "A young man's recollection" / Ky Niem Thanh Dang (translated by Thanh T. Nguyen and Bruce Weigl) ; "No lie, GI" / David Connolly ; "Guerrilla War" / W. D. Ehrhart ; "Luck" / Pauline Hebert ; "Condemnation" / Thich Nhat Hanh ; "Schoolday in Man Quang" / Denis Knight ; "Imaginary universes" / Allen Ginsberg ; "We never know" / Yusef Komunyakaa ; "Blood trail" / Jon Forrest Glade ; "Intelligence" / Dale Ritterbusch ; "Untitled" ("We found him") / Gerald McCarthy ; "Yearning" / Nguyen Dinh Thi (translated by Huynh Sanh Thong) ; "War story" / Gerald McCarthy ; "Counting small-boned bodies" / Robert Bly ; "My blood, my bones" / Nguyen Ngoc Phuong (Translated by Don Luce, John Schafer, and Jacqui Chagnon) ; "The woman he killed" / Elliot Richman ; "Where does it end?" / Jeff Miller ; "Night crossing" / Giang Nam (translated by Don Luce, John Schafer, and Jacqui Chagnon) ; "Gifts as tokens of love" / Tran Da Tu (translated by Huynh Sanh Thong) ; "Caves" / Michael S. Harper ; "Tunnels" / Yusef Komunyakaa ; "The labyrinth" / Elliot Richman ; "Search and destroy" / Dale Ritterbusch ; "Let us stand up" / Thai Nguyen (translated by Don Luce, John Schafer, and Jacqui Chagnon) ; "Viper" / Jon Forrest Glade ; "Banded Kraits" / Kevin Bowen ; "The homesick patrol" / David Vancil ; "Ambush" / Doug Anderson ; "Near Laos" / Bill Jones ; "Ambush" / Lamont Steptoe ; "I stand here" / Lieutenant Nguyen van Nghia (translated by Rick Murphy and Nguyen Dinh Thich) ; "Lament of Ben Hai River" / Nhat Hanh (translated by the author and Helen Coutant) ; "Home" / Te Hanh (translated by Nguyen Ngoc Bich) ; "From my heart of hearts" / Lieutenant Nguyen van Nghia (translated by Rick Murphy and Nguyen Dinh Thich) ; "Postscript after Xuan Dieu" / Unknown (Translated by Keith Bosley) --3. No matter what we do. "Work" / David Huddle ; "Interrogation" / Dale Ritterbusch ; "Prisoner of War" / Michael Casey ; "P.O.W.'s" / R.L. Barth ; "Sitting still" / Hoang Lien (translated by Huynh Sanh Thong) ; "Do you know that, inside the cruel jail" / Nguyen Chi Thien (translated by Huynh Sanh Thong) ; "Song from pison" / Ton That Lap (translated by Don Luce, John Schafer, and Jacqui Chagnon) ; "Pastoral scene" / Ho Chi Minh (translated by Don Luce, John Schafer, and Jacqui Chagnon) ; "On the way to Nanning" / Ho Chi Minh (Translated by Don Luce, John Schafer, and Jacqui Chagnon) ; "Tung Chun Prison" / Ho Chi Minh (translated by Burton Raffel) ; "Reading the poems of Ho" / Daniel Berrigan ; "We were permitted to meet together in prison to prepare for trial" / Daniel Berrigan ; "My plight (Sonnet: 1971-1972)" / Norman A. McDaniel ; "At a march against the Vietnam War" / Robert Bly ; "Uncle Sam at the Pentagon" / Jack Lindeman ; "The distance" / Denise Levertov ; "May 1968" / Sharon Olds ; "Fifteenth day of the fourth month of the year 1972" / L. Russell Herman Jr. ; "May, 1972" / James Schuyler ; "On being asked to write a poem against the war in Vietnam" / Hayden Carruth ; "This war" / Philip Levine ; "America : December 1972" / Don Luce ; "On hearing a new escalation" / Richard Hugo -- 4. Still the war goes on. "My beloved is dead in Vietnam" / Tuong Vuong-Riddick ; "Dead" / Mark Kessinger ; "Love song of a woman maddened by the war" / Trinh Cong Son (translated by Don Luce, John Schafer, and Jacqui Chagnon) ; "Cambodia" / James Fenton ; "Laos" / David Widup ; "Butter" / Tom V. Schmidt ; "Soldier's widow : a generic photo" / Fran Castan ; "Thirteen" / Le Minh Thu (translated by Don Luce, John Schafer and Jacqui Chagnon) ; "Peace" / Thich Nhat Hanh ; "Letter from Nam" / Sharon Lee ; "For Timothy Clover" / Liz Farrell ; "A mother's evening meditation" / Minh Dung (translated by Nguyen Ngoc Bich, Burton Raffel, and W.S. Merwin) ; "Luom" / To Huu (translated by Keith Bosley) ; "The skull beside a mountain trail" / Frank Cross --5. Asia is in flames. "Untitled" ("Marine sitting in the position") / Dick Shea ; "Shitbirds" / Jon Forrest Glade ; "Burning shit at An Khe" / Bruce Weigl ; "The last detail" / Leroy V. Quintana ; "Short Timer" / Doug Anderson ; "A drinking song" / Tran Da Tu (translated by Huynh Sanh Thong) ; "Haircut" / David Huddle ; "Untitled" ("Went to a barber shop today") / Dick Shea ; "On what the Army does with heads" / Michael Casey ; "The moon in circles of flame" / Pham Tien Duat (translated by Nguyen Quang Thieu and Kevin Bowen) ; "The Asians dying" / W.S. Merwin ; "Burning the news" / Lewis Turco ; "It is dangerous to read newspapers" / Margaret Atwood ; "Watching the news" / Paul Martin ; "'You and I are disappearing'" / Yusef Komunyakaa ; "The body burning detail" / Bill Jones -- 6. They will not cry. "Vietnam #4" / Clarence Major ; "Report from the Skull's diorama" / Yusef Komunyakaa ; "A Negro soldier's Viet Nam diary" / Herbert Woodward Martin ; "OK Corral East" / Horace Coleman/Shaka Aku Shango ; "Ballade of the Saigon streets" / Herbert Krohn ; "Cicada song" / Christian Nguyen Langworthy ; "The women next door" / Barbara Tran ; "Even as I lie pretending sleep" / Christian Nguyen Langworthy ; "A Black soldier remembers:" / Horace Coleman/Shaka Aku Shango ; "Bui Doi 2" / R. A. Streitmatter/Tran Trong Dat ; "The sadness" / Bill Shields ; "Sons without fathers" / Christian Nguyen Langworthy ; "Words" / David Huddle ; "Temple at Quan Loi, 1969" / Kevin Bowen ; "Meeting" / Unknown North Vietnamese soldier (translated by Thanh T. Nguyen and Bruce Weigl) ; "Bamboo Bridge" / Doug Anderson ; "On the highway" / Nguyen Quang Thieu (translated by the author and Martha Collins) ; "Women of the South" / Luu Trong Lu (translated by Don Luce, John Schafer, and Jacqui Chagnon) ; "Words of comfort" / Do Tan (translated by Huynh Sanh Thong) ; "Xin Loi" / Doug Anderson ; "It's too late" / Jim Nye ; "The new lullaby" / Tran Da Tu (translated by Huynh Sanh Thong) ; "A special train" / Daniel Hoffman ; "In his father's footsteps" / David Connolly ; "Kids" / Mark Kessinger ; "Second Lieutenant Parvin Zelmer, U.S.M.C." / Bryan Alec Floyd ; "Orphanage" / Wendy Wilder Larsen ; "I met you in the orphanage yard" / Thich Nhat Hanh ; "A letter to my future child" / Tran Duc Uyen (translated by Huynh Sanh Thong) ; "At the crossroads" / Gerald McCarthy ; "Child of My Lai" / Le Dan (translated by Don Luce, John Schafer, and Jacqui Chagnon) ; "From My Lai the thunder went west" / Richard Ryan ; "The trial" / Lowell Jaeger ; "A poison tree" / Elliot Richman --7. A dark tolling. "Christmas Eve 1972" / Don Luce ; "Two villages" / Grace Paley ; "Corporal Charles Chungtu, U.S.M.C." / Bryan Alec Floyd ; "Mission" / L. Dean Minze ; "Untitled" / Robert Lax ; "Pete" / Sharon Fuhrman ; "Diary of a MAC housewife" / Linda Williamson ; "No complaints" / L.L. Case ; "Driving through Minnesota during the Hanoi bombings" / Robert Bly ; "Lines written on the occasion of President Nixon's address to the nation, May 8,1972" / A.J.M. Smith ; "Scattering flowers" / George Hitchcock ; "Ballet" / Milton Kaplan ; "The fall of Da Nang" / Gerald McCarthy ; "After the fall of Saigon" / Walter McDonald ; "Freedom bird" / Jon Forrest Glade ; "April 30,1975" / John Balaban ; "Captain Mainero" / Peter Ulisse ; "As those Americans flee" / Nguyen Chi Thien (translated by Huynh Sanh Thong) ; "Flying blind" / Trinh T. Minh-Ha ; "Packing" / Tran Thi Nga ; "The airport" / Tran Thi Nga ; "Escape" / Tran Thi Nga -- 8. All your world of griefs. "The sea, the world, and the boat people" / Ha Huyen Chi ; "The boat people" / Thich Nhat Hanh ; "Refugee" / Trinh T. Minh-Ha ; "A New Year's wish for a little refugee" / Tran Mong Tu ; "Deep as the sea" / Lamont Steptoe ; "Untitled" ("I feel nothing") / Dick Shea ; "Coming home" / W.D. Ehrhart ; "The longest war" / Jan Barry ; "Nightmare" / Nguyen Quang Thieu (translated by the author and Martha Collins) ; from "Closure : a much needed war" / Steve Mason ; "Waiter in a California Vietnam restaurant" / Clarence Major ; "Peer group" / Bill Shields ; "Curse the rainbow" / Jacqueline M. Loring ; "Song of napalm" / Bruce Weigl ; "Last Asylum" / Gary Rafferty ; "Nam nightmares" / Bill Shields ; "Twins" / Gary Rafferty ; "In the labor market at Giang Vo" / Pham Tien Duat (translated by Nguyen Ba Chung and Kevin Bowen) ; "Outliving our ghosts" / Doug Anderson ; "Scars" / Truong Tran ; "Wind and widow" / Le Thi May (translated by Nguyen Ba Chung) ; "Twenty years" / Do Tan (translated by Nguyen Ngoc Bich, Burton Raffel, and W. S. Merwin) ; "Tracks of my tears" / Bill Shields --9. The names rise up. "Elegy to an unwept soldier" / Nguyen Quóc Vinh "For the missing in action" / John ; Balaban ; "POW/MIA" / W. D. Ehrhart ; "In Southeast Asia" / Chris Taniguchi ; "Returning the missing" / Lamont Steptoe ; "At the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington D.C. : Chrissie" / Eugene E. Grollmes ; "Midnight at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial" / W. D. Ehrhart ; "At the Vietnam Memorial" / George Bilgere ; "A Vietnam Veteran's Memorial Day" / Bill Bauer ; "At the Vietnam Wall" / Duong Tuong ; "Unveiling the Vietnam Memorial" / Fran Castan ; "The Wall" / Horace Coleman/Shaka Aku Shango ; "The Peace Monument" / Jan Barry ; "White wall" / Rod McQueary ; "Miles of bones" / Bill Shields ; "Mother's pearls" / Bao-Long Chu -- 10. Lost in a foreign silence. "History" / Thuong Vuong-Riddick ; "Letter from Bac Ninh, written to a brother in America" / Bao-Long Chu ; "M.I.A." / Bao-Long Chu ; "Umbilical cord" / Tu-Uyen Nguyen ; "Saigon : the unhealed wound" / Minh Vien ; "Shrapnel shards on blue water" / Le Thi Diem Thuy ; "Tet in America" / Tran Thi Nga ; "Blues" / Thuong Vuong-Riddick ; "Home" / Thien-bao Thuc Phi ; "This is the house i pass through daily" / Bao-Long Chu ; "Three-letter word" / Mong Lan ; "How I could interpret the events of my youth, events I do not remember except in dreams" / Christian Nguyen Langworthy ; "Bui Doi 7" / R. A. Streitmatter/Tran Trong Dat ; "Bui Doi" / R. A. Streitmatter/Tran Trong Dat ; "Dui Boi, dust of life" / Yusef Komunyakaa ; "Between thumb and index finger" / Truong Tran ; "Tombstones" / Mong Lan ; "Waiting for a cyclo in the hood" / Thien-bao Thuc Phi ; "For Mrs. Na" / W. D. Ehrhart ; "A conical hat" / Kevin Bowen ; "Her life runs like a red silk flag" / Bruce Weigl ; "Three fish" / Bruce Weigl ; "A song of my native village" / Nguyen Quang Thieu (translated by the author and Martha Collins) ; "Untitled" ("On this land") / Ngo Vinh Long ; "What I leave to my son" / Du Tu Le (translated by Nguyen Ngoc Bich, Burton Raffel, and W.S. Merwin) ; "Peace, so that" / Greg Kuzma ; "In celebration of Spring" / John Balaban