Best Vietnam Poems

There is the calm before the rain
It’s almost silent all around
The clouds expectant in the sky
Foreboding birds are homeward bound.

The soldiers stare at looming clouds
There is the calm before the rain
And yet there’s tension in the air
Will all this waiting be in vain?

They know the...

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I flew,
a modern man in a steel bird,
with all the arrogance of
ancient Icarus, but my wings
did not melt nor I swoon.

I flew high, very, very high
over Asian lands and homes,
and below me, very, very far
down where the bombs fell
like the rains of hell...
I saw the...

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Emotions flooded my very soul as I viewed that Sacred Wall.
Etched for all eternity are hero's names who sacrificed their all.
I sensed that I was on hallowed soil as I knelt on bended knee.
I touched The Wall today, but more than that, The Wall touched...

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The pro-Hanoi Vietcong many years ago
In the 1950's Diem's government they'd overthrow
All opposition was crushed killed or jailed
These elected ones to their people they failed

This Buddhist country so religious in belief
Now politically torn apart, impending future grief
In the early 1960's with the CIA in place
Discussing...

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Anne Murray did have quite the flurry, voice as a brook without crooks
 Canadian born, songs of forlorn, beautiful vibes, I subscribed
Such singing as a bird, the world has never heard, she splurged
“O Little Snow Bird”,  in the words I heard, calming of Vietnam

O...

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They're getting old now.
They congregate only a few blocks south of where I live.
40 to 50 years ago they were in Vietnam.
Among the homeless they usually move slower,
The weariness of age and of other things,
of drug use and alcohol,
lost loves and families,
bent and broken paths.

You...

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DEDICATED TO MY FATHER, (R) COLONEL WILLIAM C. GODWIN / 1931 - 1998



Leaving for a year
to nightmare and fear
he came to say goodbye
or at least to try.

I did not speak,
didn’t open my eyes,
an unknown fear
had me paralyzed.

My Father full-blown,
a force in uniform
is memory that haunts,
fulfilling...

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LETTERS FROM VIETNAM.........Volume One......

November and December...1967/68.......

I drove by your house...several times...In hopes of seeing you......but then I had to go 
away....

Dearest Sharon,

I missed your Prom....I had other commitments....
Hemingway...was the very first American causality of WWI...in Italy....a young man. He fell 
in love...with his nurse....and his...

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“Get your crap together, we’re leaving,” were the words but the
Cobwebs in my brain block out who said them. We started throwing things,
clearing out as dumpsters arrived with the Vietnamese. We throw in            ...

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Vietnam War Memorial Wall
58,318

Victory
Into
End
The
Names
At
Memorial

Worshiping
Americans
Remembering

Meaningful 
Everlasting
Memory
Of
Real
Individuals  
A
Love

Written
All
Lost
Lives

Contest Two: Your Best Poem that is trophy worthy Two
Sponsored by: Tania Kitchin
Dated Entered: 10/01/2019

I believe this poem is trophy worthy for the meaning behind it, a trophy is only a symbol, this is a true story that needs...

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The winning touchdown scored that fall – lingered,
As fresh a memory of that night,
As when the sound of the crowd filled his ears, 
And her kisses were warm and deep.

Only to have all that was planned and lay ahead,
Turned upside down and changed forever,
By a...

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vietnam reflections 1

i think that ihave madness
it shines through
most of what i see
and much of what i do.
lunacy pocks my being
some of what i am seeing
does not exist at all
maybe this is sanity  
that goes before my fall....

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The slickness of a blade
pressing against a throat....
the cold steel meeting tender flesh
blood drips and a body tumbles 

the taste.... the sight... the sound....
all quite euphoric.....

Ripped clothes, smashed items, 
echo screams, and the raging fires that glow throughout the night

The beauty.... the savagery.... the destruction
all...

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Within my breast I carry ancient death; 
Its face is pale and white as marbled clay. 
Consumed with guilt, I struggle for each breath 
Still sour with napalm death of yesterday. 

The fractured colors formed behind my lids 
Are monumental rainbows round a pit 
Where...

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Do you still carry it with you, 
the rifle of the fight?

Are you absolved in your bravery
even though you did not die?

Do you see worth
for what you risked?

I could not smell your perspiration
as we danced the boogaloo at home.

We were all so young;
all of us;
no...

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