Solider-Poet to Speak at 'Americans for the Arts' 2019

The writer of the Red Bull Rising blog will be presenting as part of a panel at the 2019 National Convention for Americans for the Arts, Minneapolis, Minn. "Changing and Honoring the Narrative of Military Experience" will be presented from 1:45 to 3 p.m. Sat., June 15, at the Hilton Minneapolis, 1001 Marquette Ave., Minneapolis.

Randy Brown embedded with his former Iowa Army National Guard unit as a civilian journalist in Afghanistan, May-June 2011. He authored the 2015 poetry collection "Welcome to FOB Haiku: War Poems from Inside the Wire", and edited the 2017 journalism collection "Reporting for Duty: Citizen-Soldier Journalism from the Afghan Surge, 2010-2011."

Brown's essays, journalism, and poetry have appeared widely both on-line and in print. Since 2015, he has served as the poetry editor for the national non-profit Military Experience & the Arts' literary journal "As You Were." As "Charlie Sherpa," he writes about citizen-soldier culture at: www.redbullrising.com; about military writing at: www.aimingcircle.com; and about modern war poetry at: www.fobhaiku.com.

You can follow him on Twitter: @FOB_Haiku

Other panelists participating in the Saturday event include:

• Blake Rondeau, Minnesota Humanities Center
• BriGette McCoy, Women Veteran Social Justice
• Jay Moad, playwright and performer

The event will be facilitated by Marete Wester, senior director of policy, Americans for the Arts.

According to the description for the "Changing and Honoring the Narrative of Military Experience" discussion:

As the Forever War in Afghanistan continues, communities need to explore ways to help our returning Veterans reintegrate into their communities. The Minnesota Humanities Center empowers Veterans from all conflicts and wars to speak in their own voices through plays, discussions, literature and Veterans’ Voices. Writing Workshops are facilitated by military writers who are Veterans themselves, offering peer mentorship, instruction, and encouragement to those seeking to express the military experience through essays, poetry, and performance.

Learning objectives are:

1. See how storytelling helps in the Veterans’ healing process, reentry and reintegration into their communities.

2. Discuss how writing can help bridge the “civilian-military gap” between the military and the people they serve.

3. Explore how using the humanities can foster dialogue between military and civilian populations.

New War Poetry: Eric Chandler's 'Hugging This Rock'

In a new collection of poetry about life and war as a pilot, parent, and outdoor sports enthusiast, Northeastern Minnesota author Eric “Shmo” Chandler delivers plenty in laughs and love—of family, of country, and of navigating one’s place in the world. Whether soaring at 40,000 feet, or carefully considering the flowers he encounters by the trail, his words are rich with insight and humor.

Published this week by Middle West Press LLC, "Hugging This Rock: Poems of Earth & Sky, Love & War" (116 pages, trade paperback) is now available in a $9.99 print edition, as well as a $5.99 e-book via Amazon.

A cross-country skier, marathon runner, and former F-16 fighter pilot, Chandler is also author of the 2013 collection of essays "Outside Duluth," and the 2014 military-themed novella "Down In It." His fiction, non-fiction, and award-winning poetry have appeared widely both on-line and in print. He blogs at: https://ericchandler.wordpress.com/

Chandler is a two-time winner of the Col. Darron L. Wright Memorial Writing Award administered by the on-line literary journal Line of Advance. He is a member of the Lake Superior Writers organization, the Outdoor Writers Association of America, and the Military Writers Guild.

A 1989 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, Chandler retired after a 24-year military flying career with the U.S. Air Force and the Minnesota Air National Guard. He is a veteran with three deployments to Saudi Arabia for Operation Southern Watch; three deployments to Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom; and one to Afghanistan for Operation Enduring Freedom. He flew over 3,000 hours and 145 combat sorties in the F-16.

Now a commercial airline pilot, Chandler lives in Duluth, Minnesota with his wife, two children, and a rescued dog named Leo.

Middle West Press LLC is a Johnston, Iowa-based editor and publisher of non-fiction, fiction, journalism, and poetry. As an independent micro-press, we publish from one to four titles annually. Our projects are often inspired by the people, places, and history of the American Midwest.

Book Review: "Granola, MN" by Susanne Aspley

Book Review: "Granola, MN: Love and War in a Nutty Little Town" by Susanne Aspley

Set in a fictional rural town in modern-day Minnesota, Suzanne Aspley's "Granola, MN" is a light-hearted romp through some potentially dark territory, including such topics as drug addiction, losing a child, and what it means to come home from war. It's bursting with Middle Western charm, snark, and wisdom.

Aspley's characters are full of character, new regional archetypes who each have their flaws, but who also generally support and believe in each other. The tone is snappy and fresh, so laugh-out-loud and dialogue-driven that it seems ready-made for a small art house film. Think "Northern Exposure" meets "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" Or "Gilmore Girls" as narrated by the clear-eyed, smart-mouthed title character in "Juno."

The exurban setting of Granola, Minn. (pop. 2,000) is rich with details that ring true, such as old-school hardware stores that serve free popcorn to customers, and sounds-about-right business names such as Git-n-Split, Liquor Pig, Taco Gong, and Chub Grocery.

Aspley's narrator-protagonist is the quietly ambitious Allison Couch (like the thing you sit on), who dreams of one day buying the town's hardware store, in order to save it from the clutches of the local real-estate hustler. Her friend and mentor, Mr. Whitehead, owns the "last Alamo of Granola's original downtown stores." The county building inspector, who also happens to own the adjacent strip mall, covets Whitehead's land for its potential as a parking lot. Plot-wise, that tension is far from the only thing going on, but it serves as an effective zipline through the book's smaller adventures.

Content with the day-to-day rhythms of Granola, Allison's worldview gets a little bigger when she meets Toby, a military veteran who was awarded the Silver Star for actions in Afghanistan. Toby has recently moved in with his mom, the principal of the area high school. The townspeople want to celebrate Toby with a float in the Fourth of July parade. Toby's relationship to the war, however, is complicated.

"People think I'm some kind of hero," he tells Allison. "But I don't feel like one. There's a clown jury, a box of bozos in my head that keeps telling me I'm guilty because I'm alive. And the jury don't stop replaying the evidence. […] I wish I could have save them all, or none of them. Or kill all the Taliban, or none of them. I don't like the feeling of playing God, like it was up to who I should save, or kill, or not."

Says the well-grounded Allison, a little earlier: "I think it's normal to be different after a war. You'd be crazy if it didn't affect you, but you gotta manage it a little better. And you can't do that alone, or by not letting people help you."

In short, "Granola, MN" is a delight. Nothing too deep, unless you think about it a little more. Or read it more than once. And, given how packed it is with wisecracks and jokes and plainspoken pearls of wisdom, you'll want to do both.

Author Susanne Aspley is a retired 20-year veteran of the U.S. Army Reserve. During her 20-year military career as a photojournalist, she deployed to places such as Bosnia, Cuba, Kuwait, and Panama. She is also a former drill sergeant, and served in Thailand as a member of the Peace Corps in 1989-1991. She has written two novels, and multiple children's foreign-language books.

"Granola, MN" is available in trade paperback and Kindle format.

Is Midwestern Military Writing Officially a Thing?

Whether you call it "war writing," or "military writing," or "writing about military experience," the literary terrain of the American Middle West is an increasingly fertile frontier in which to grow civil-military discourse.

Although I was born on the West Coast into an active-duty Air Force family, I claim Iowa as a home state. I graduated from high school here. I'm raising a family here. In journalism jargon, I'm a bit of a booster. I write poetry and edit books about Midwesterners in the military. I've even, with a little help from friends and colleagues, presented a panel discussion in Washington, D.C. about how "flyover country" responds to war. Unnumbered Sherpatude: "In writing about war, everyone grinds their own axe." Mine is the American Middle West, and how good people who serve our country are often overlooked by cultural and political power centers.

There are many, many different ways to describe and conscribe the Middle West as a region. If you want to start a quasi-religious debate, just ask what states other people include in "Midwest." My personal blend includes all the area between the Ohio and Missouri Rivers, and even the southern states whose territories were acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. I further note with pride that, of the many conflicting maps that are available of the Midwest, the inclusion of Iowa is never questioned.

Still, the old journalist in me adheres to the even-older rule: A single example could just be wishful thinking. Two examples could be coincidence. Three examples, however, equals a trend.

I am writing today to declare that Midwestern military writing is officially a thing.

Example No. 1: Now in its sixth cycle of production, the "Proud to Be: Writing by American Warriors" series from Southeast Missouri State University Press, with the support of the Missouri Humanities Council, is the established flagship anthology of military writing. While there have been and will be other anthology projects, none has yet achieved the consistent quality and quantity of the "Proud to Be" series.

(There's still time to submit fiction, non-fiction, poetry, photography, and more before the "Proud to Be, Vol. 6" deadline of June 1, 2017. Click here for details.)

Example No. 2: The Chicago-based on-line literary journal Line of Advance recently announced the results of its 2nd Annual Darron L. Wright military writing award. Underwritten by the Blake and Bailey Foundation, the contest serves as a living memorial for a fallen soldier, by incubating fresh words and stories on war.

Example No. 3: The Deadly Writers Patrol, headquartered in Madison, Wis. has successfully evolved from a community of Vietnam War-era writers into an engaged, inclusive community that stretches to 21st century veterans. The group has published 11 editions of its print journal since 2006. With its just-released issue No. 12, the annual publication will increase production frequency to twice a year. There is also a new website design, and submissions to the publications are now made via Submittable.

(Order the latest Deadly Writers Patrol issue here!)

There are other, supporting indicators of a growing population and presence of military-writing voices from the Midwest. In 2015, the second Military Experience & the Arts Symposium was hosted in Lawton, Okla. Based at the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point, David Chrisinger ("See Me for Who I Am") incorporates writing workshops in his programming efforts both on campus and via non-profits such as Team RWB and The War Horse.

And, because some literary critics focus solely on book-length work and nothing else, there are palletsful of Midwestern war books. Matthew Hefti's "Hard and Heavy Thing" has its heart in Wisconsin. Susanne Aspley's "Granola, MN" is full of the quirky humor of the region. Journalist Whitney Terrell, based in Kansas City, Mo., gave us "The Good Lieutenant." And genre-jumper M.L. Doyle, who grew up in Minnesota, has delivered a number of titles—mystery, urban fantasy, and more—each infused with war themes.

Memoirist Anglea Ricketts ("No Man's War") speaks with plain-spoken insight and humor of Indiana, while Iraq War veteran Kayla Williams ("Love My Rifle More than You" and "Plenty of Time When We Get Home") and does the same from her Ohio origins. And, while Andria Williams set her first novel "The Longest Night") in Idaho for historical reasons, I'd argue the work illuminates and radiates a particular familiarity with the archetypical Midwesterner's emotional landscape. She got her MFA in creative writing at the University of Minnesota, you know.

Finally, writer Roy Scranton ("War Porn") is now faculty at the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Ind. He grew up in Oregon, but, like many people, perhaps he's decided the Middle West is as good a place as any to wait out the Anthropocene.

The bottom line, for right now? Midwestern military writing is a thing. And, with all this Midwestern sense and sensibility brought to bear, I'm certain that we'll soon have this whole Forever War thing figured out in a jiffy. You'll find that we're full of practical, polite solutions and highly accomplished at barely suppressing timeless reservoirs of rage and aspiration. We have been since "The Great Gatsby."

In the meantime, please enjoy this pending new Sherpatude: "War may be hell, but we'll bring hotdish."

*****

Full disclosure: The writer of the Red Bull Rising blog was a poetry finalist in this year's Darron L. Wright writing awards, administered by Line of Advance. He been previously published in the Deadly Writers Patrol journal, and in the "Proud to Be" anthology series.

'She Went to War' Opens at Guthrie Theatre March 17

Opening Friday, four military veterans perform a script based on their military experience in The Telling Project's "She Went to War," The 50-minute production will play Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays March 17 to April 2 in the Guthrie Theatre's Dowling Studio, Minneapolis.

Friday and Saturday performances are 7:30 p.m., while Sunday matinee performance are at 1 p.m. General admission seating opens 30 minutes before curtain. Tickets are $9 and may be reserved on-line here.

Cast members include:

Jenn Calaway, who enlisted in the Marine Corps in 2006 as public affairs specialist, and later deployed to Afghanistan. She says struggled with the constraints of a male-dominated organization (the American military) in a male-dominated country (Afghanistan) “If it was known that the American military had a female in their ranks, they would lose respect from the Afghans. They wouldn’t want to have conversations with them or do business or work with them. I had to disguise myself as a guy most of the time."

Gretchen Evans, who served in the U.S. Army from 1979 to 2006 as an intelligence analyst and paratrooper. According to press materials, Gretchen’s career put her in the crosshairs of conflict around the globe, including Grenada, Kosovo, Bosnia, Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan. In 2006, while working as a sergeant major in Afghanistan, a mortar blast threw her into a concrete bunker wall. She suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury (T.B.I.) and lost 95 percent of her hearing, ending her career in military service. "I always tell everybody I had 27 good years in the military and one really crappy day," she says. She now works as al lead veteran outreach coordinator at the Emory Healthcare Veterans Program. 

Tabitha Nichols, who served in the Army National Guard from 2003 to 2011. At age 19, Nichols was injured in a mortar attack in Forward Operating Base in Kalsu, Iraq, just days after her arrival there. "When I got out, it was like cutting loose a ball and chain. I’m gonna keep that ball and chain, but it’s not holding me back anymore. I just put it on a shelf, look at it sometimes, maybe polish it now and then,” she says.

Racheal Robinson, currently serving in the U.S. Air Force, who originally enlisted in the Army National Guard as an emancipated minor at the age of 17. “The military has been my whole adult life," she says. "It’s who I am." 

Since 2008, the Austin, Texas-based non-profit Telling Project has presented nationwide more than 40 community-based performances by military veterans, service members, and family members. Each production's script is based on interviews with cast members about their military experiences.

The all-female theatrical presentation "She Went to War" is a first for The Telling Project organization.

A website for The Telling Project is here.

A public Facebook group for The Telling Project is here.

The "She Went to War" production is also part of the Guthrie Theatre's "Level Nine" series, through which the Minneapolis organization creates opportunities for community engagement and dialogue.

Mitch Gerads' Original Comics Art Gives Me Butterflies

Original art by Mitch Gerads

Despite yesterday's dusting of snow, it's beginning to feel like springtime in the American Middle West. That means red bud trees and Easter and Sherpa kids' soccer tournaments are just around the corner. In the meantime, I'm pleased to report on something else that has me giddy and feeling younger than I am: the recent acquisition of a page of original work by a favorite comic book artist.

The page is from issue No. 11 of "The Activity," a 2012-2014 Image Comics series that artist Mitch Gerads' co-created with writer Nathan Edmondson. The series, which tells realistic stories of various military special forces and governmental intelligence teams, is currently under development as a feature film.

Usually, "Activity" stories take place overseas. Published in 2013, Issue No. 11 is a story of terrorism on U.S. soil. In "The Butterfly Effect," Team Omaha is dispatched to Minneapolis, where terrorists threaten to detonate a bomb somewhere in the city. Why Minneapolis? "A city big enough for it to matter, but not a city on the lookout for an attack." Eventually, the team figures out they're searching for someone with a large quantity of C-12 explosive. An expert is called in from Colorado, along with a fragile, experimental cargo.

"So how does it work?," asks a member of Team Dallas.

"You just open the crates. They do the rest. You might say we've programmed them. From day one, they're exposed to a variety of chemical explosive compounds. They won't have any problem with C-12. Just don't lose sight of them."

"This is crazy," says one FBI guy.

Says Team Dallas: "At least it will be pretty."

I love the page that follows—the one I purchased—because it tells a nearly complete story, even without the word balloons: The ground team radios that it's in position. An FBI agent takes a crowbar to a crate. Butterflies begin to escape the box. Ground team looks up, through the windshield, the butterflies reflecting in the glass. Finally, the butterflies continue to disperse across the city. There is skywalk—a fixture of Midwestern urban architecture—visible in the background.

To me, the figures on the page seem hopeful, filled with wonder, despite a crazy world and the threat of terrorism.

To me, it feels like spring.

And I can't wait to frame it and hang it in the office.

After graduating from the the University of Wisconsin-Stout with a fine arts degree in graphic design, Gerads started out illustrating for cereal brands in Minneapolis. From boxes of balanced breakfast product, he jumped into the gritty world of military-themed storytelling. He's got an eye for the perfect shot, an attention to technical detail, and a sensibility that lends itself to stories of shadows, subdued colors, and moral shades of gray. For more on Gerads' career, click here.

"The Activity" is collected into three trade paperbacks volumes, available here and here, and here.

In addition to his work on "The Activity," Gerads drew a 2014-2015 run on "The Punisher," a vigilante character owned by Marvel Comics. That run was also written by Edmundson, Gerads' partner from "The Activity." Those comics have also been collected in three volumes of trade paperbacks here, here, and here.

Make sure to check out his original artwork, including pages and covers from "The Punisher," at his on-line store. There's also a great "process" story here, about how Gerads develops his artwork, panel by panel.

Most recently, Gerads has been the co-creator of "The Sheriff of Babylon," a fictional-but-realistic crime story of post-war Iraq, written by former Central Intelligence Agency operations officer Tom King. For an interview with Gerads about "Sheriff," click here.

Coincidentally, the fourth issue of "Sheriff" is due out from today, Mar. 2, 2016, from DC Comics' Vertigo imprint. The critically acclaimed series has recently been extended to 12 issues. It is a dense, layered, and confusing tale—sort of like the place that inspired it. Call it "Iraq Noir." Be sure to check it out!

You can read a free, multi-page preview of "Sheriff of Babylon" No. 4 here.

10 Things One Gulf War Memoirist Says Not to Forget

Editor's note: Earlier this week, Minnesotan Joel Turnipseed wrote these 10 aphorisms while musing about the recent 25th anniversary of the start of the Persian Gulf War. As a member of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve's 6th Motor Transport Battalion in 1990-1991, Turnipseed deployed to Saudi Arabia as a tractor-trailer driver—part of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

After writing a 1997 article for GQ magazine about the experience, the former philosophy major later expanded the work into the 2003 book "Baghdad Express: A Gulf War Memoir." It is funny and unique—a "modern bohemian war memoir." You can still find it in both hardcover and trade paperback editions.

While he originally shared these thoughts with family and friends via social media, Turnipseed has graciously granted permission to the Red Bull Rising blog to publish it here.

*****

Turnipseed writes:

Today is the 25th anniversary of Operation Desert Storm. I've already written plenty about the subject—and I'm not really looking to editorialize (not comprehensively, anyway) ... but there are few things we somehow always seem to forget that seem worth remembering today:

1. War does not turn boys into men—it turns them into endangered boys. 

2. War does not solve problems—it just creates different problems to solve. 

3. There is no such thing as "protecting our troops" (from injury, from PTSD, from ...) during a war. Go ask the alcoholic and suicidal drone operators, who conduct war from a video game machine, how "well-protected" they feel from war. 

4. Never ask anyone to tell you a war story unless you want to risk feeling like a terribly shitty human being when they're finished. 

5. Never tell a war story unless you, too, want to risk feeling like a terribly shitty human being when you're finished. 

6. Never trust anyone who denies numbers 1 through 5: They are either hurting way more than they're letting on or they're incapable for other reasons (personal or professional) of telling the truth. 

7. Turns out people live effective, interesting lives in surprising and wonderful ways after they've been injured … which in no way erases the fact that they've been hurt. I recently saw a man with both arms blown off at the elbows work the TSA line like a champ. I wanted to cheer him, until I recognized what that meant ... 

8. Any time someone uses war to inspire you, run like hell. 

9. Veterans make terrible sacrifices for their country, in the act of killing the citizens of others'. Nurses, doctors, police officers, EMTs, firefighters, construction workers, fisherman, truck drivers, miners, and any number of other workers make terrible sacrifices for their country, to make life longer and safer. Go thank a truck driver for his sacrifice; buy a nurse a drink. 

10. We've now been (including "No-Fly Zones" & Operation Desert Fox & ...) at war in Iraq for 25 years. Stop and think about that. There are college graduates who have never known a period when we were not at war in the Middle East. Something scarier? Many of them have no reason to believe they are in any danger ...

Minnesota Rises to Question Civil War Art in Capitol

"The Second Minnesota Regiment at Missionary Ridge, November 25, 1863" by Douglas Volk. SOURCE: Minnesota Historical Society

After Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton proposed moving or removing military art and artifacts depicting the state's American Civil War history to less-visible locations than the reception room outside his office, a state capitol preservation commission has opened the matter to public discussion. The governor reportedly questioned whether the five historical military-themed paintings best depicted the diversity of experiences in the state.

Rep. Dianne Loeffler, a Democrat who represents part of Minneapolis, was quoted as saying in support of the move, "We have enough battles in here that I think some rooms should not have as many victims visually portrayed."

The proposal takes place within the context of a multi-year building project. The Minnesota state capitol building, built in 1905, is currently closed to the public for renovation and restoration, and will not be re-opened to the public until early 2017. Legislative and executive branch business continues as scheduled in the building.

Maj. Gen. Richard C. Nash, adjutant general of the Minnesota National Guard, has fired back that "war is no less horrible now than what it was in 1861," and argued for the preservation of the artwork's current pride of place. The former commander of Minnesota's 34th Infantry "Red Bull" Division has even gone on television and participated in a Dec. 7 public hearing on the topic.

The paintings in question include those titled "The Second Minnesota Regiment at Missionary Ridge, November 25th 1863” by Douglas Volk, and "The Battle of Nashville" by Howard Pyle. (More about the historical battles they each depict here and here.)

Minnesota's Civil War history runs early and deep. The First Minnesota Regiment was the first state unit to be offered to federal service in defense of the Union, sustained the highest casualties of any unit the war, and is much celebrated for its actions on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg. Although not displayed at the state capitol, the First Minnesota has been depicted in a "National Guard Heritage Series" painting and print by Don Troiani.

The historical lineage of the First Minnesota is maintained by the Minnesota National Guard's modern-day 2nd Battalion, 135th Infantry Regiment, a unit that is aligned with the Iowa National Guard's 2nd Brigade Combat Team (B.C.T.), 34th Inf. "Red Bull" Div. (2-34th BCT).

The public is invited to continue to comment until Dec. 18, 2015 regarding the Civil War paintings and the Minnesota capitol restoration by sending input via e-mail: capitol.art@state.mn.us; and/or by participating in an on-line survey here.

The Minnesota State Capitol Restoration Commission will incorporate all public input into a report due to be published in January 2016.

A Round-up of Poetry Books About 21st Century Wars

An impromptu "war party" of writers at the national Association of Writers and Writing
Programs (AWP) conference in Minneapolis earlier this month. Poets, novelists, memoirists,
essayists, and other story-tellers engaged in exploring themes and experiences of war.

April is National Poetry Month. The wars continue.

Civilians, service members, and veterans continue to engage America's 21st century wars through writing, and more than a few are doing so through poetry. War poetry didn't end with the First World War. As a means of communicating and commenting on military experiences, poetry remains just as relevant and vital as other forms of literature and media.

Don't believe me? I'll let an expanding and diverse chorus of modern war-poetry voices argue the point for me.

Earlier this month, I was lucky to meet up with some war-lit practitioners and camp followers at the 2015 conference of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (A.W.P.) conference in Minneapolis. Because I'd traveled by ground, I was also able to stuff my rucksack with plenty of new books and journals. More than a week later, you might say I'm still conducting document exploitation.

The AWP conference is the largest such event in North America, gathering approximately 12,000 writers, editors, teachers, and others. The 2015 event featured more than 2,500 presenters and 550 readings, panels, and lectures about craft. The concurrent book fair featured more than 700 presses, publications, and other organizations engaged in the making and distribution of literature. In 2016, the event travels to Los Angeles. In 2017, the event travels to Washington, D.C.

Rather than posting my own After-Action Report, I'll point readers toward such dispatches at Peter Molin's "Time Now" blog, as well as author Sioban Fallon's blog.

Now, let's talk about poetry.

I've heard it said that the people who read (and buy) poetry are most likely poets themselves. The truism is often meant as a criticism, as if poets were alone in constructing elaborate (and, no doubt, metaphorical) echo chambers in response to the worlds around them.

Poetry is just like any activity, however. People who write fiction tend to buy and read fiction. People who create video games tend to buy and consume video games. People who talk on Sunday morning news shows tend to watch Sunday morning news shows. Bottom line: We're all talking to ourselves, when we talk to each other.

What poetry offers over some of these other forms is that it is relatively accessible. The cost of entry is low. You can buy a collection of poetry for less than $20, or you can browse the public library shelves. Books of poetry don't take very long to read, and you can skim and flit about the pages to find poems that interest you. You can toss poems away with little guilt, or enthusiastically push them into other readers' hands and lives.

Regardless of your reaction to any given work, you will at least have considered, for the briefest of moments, the world around you as seen through someone else's eyes. And that is the first step toward changing minds, and changing realities.

As Tim Green, editor of the poetry magazine Rattle, recently said in an interview on the Poetry Has Value blog:

The real currency for poetry is attention; poets get to have a voice in the din, they get to move people, change the thinking, explore ideas and feelings, create images that were never there before—and we have a pretty large group of poetry lovers to appreciate it. It’s an art that costs extraordinarily little to pursue, is open to anyone, is encouraging of unique voices and perspectives. […]

So, in celebration of National Poetry Month, here's a start toward a "Mother of All 21st Century War Poetry Lists." These are titles that are on my bookshelf—those which deal with Iraq and Afghanistan and places in between—any and all of which I personally recommend to you. Again, it's a start. Check them out. Collect them all. Trade with your friends.

Most importantly, tell me what I'm missing!

COLLECTIONS:

• "All the Heat We Could Carry" (2013) by Charlie Bondhus. Narratives of gay soldiers and their partners.

• "Stateside" (2010) by Jehanne Dubrow. Poems from the home front.

• "Bangalore" (2013) by Kerry James Evans. Red Bull Rising review here.

• "Clamor " (2010) by Elyse Fenton. Poems from the home front.

• "Medic Against Bomb: A Doctor's Poetry of War" (2014) by Frederick Foote

• "Overwatch" (2011) by Allen Gray

• "Shortly Thereafter" (2012) by Colin Halloran

• "War" (2013) by Chuck Rybak

• "Army Cats" (2011) by Tom Sleigh

• "Here, Bullet" (2005) and "Phantom Noise"(2010) by Brian Turner. Red Bull Rising review of the poet's recent memoir here.

• "The Shape of Our Faces No Longer Matters" (2014) by Gerardo Mena. Red Bull Rising review here.

• "Red Fields" (2012) by Jason Poudrier. Red Bull Rising interview with the author here.

• "Letter Composed During a Lull in the Fighting: Poems" by Kevin Powers. Red Bull Rising review here.

ANTHOLOGIES:

• "Enduring Freedom: An Afghan Anthology" (2011; pending re-release August 2015). Poems from U.K. military service members, veterans, and family members.

• "Load Poems Like Guns: Women's Poetry from Herat, Afghanistan" (2015) translated by Farzana Marie

• "Heroes: 100 Poems from the New Generation of War Poets" (2011). Poems from U.K. military service members, veterans, and family members.

• "Washing the Dust from Our Hearts: Poetry and Prose from the Afghan Women's Writing Project" (2015). Works in English from participants in the program's videoconference workshops.

FREE! ON-LINE MIL-POETRY JOURNALS:

• "Ash & Bones" on-going series on military themes

• Military Experience & the Arts' "Blue Streak"

• Veterans Writing Project's "O-Dark-Thirty"

• "Wife and War" poetry blog by memoirist Amalie Flynn

For the Poet-Sherpa, April is the Coolest Month

April, in addition to being both cruel and full of showers, is National Poetry Month.

When I started the Red Bull Rising blog in late 2009, a more-established mil-blogger contacted me, gave me some blogging tips, and also shared that she was also a journalist by day, and also a poet. Then serving as a citizen-soldier, I'm not sure which part of that mix sounded more alien to me at the time. Blogger? Journalist? Poet?

Now, however, I find myself routinely pointing people toward opportunities to document, explore, illuminate their military experiences through expressive arts. And that includes poetry, as well as fiction and non-fiction writing. I'm also a fan of visual, theatrical, and performing arts, although I'm not usually a direct participant.

Evoking Sherpatude No. 26 ("Humor is a combat multiplier …"), most of my poetry goes for the joke, rather than the jugular. I write goofy haiku. I write light verse about the light infantry.

I don't consider myself a "war poet," any sooner than I'd call myself a "combat correspondent" for having once briefly travelled to Afghanistan. And the term "warrior-poet" suggests someone like actor George C. Scott's stanza-spouting character in the movie "Patton" (1968):

As if through a glass, and darkly
The age-old strife I see —
Where I fought in many guises, many names —
but always me.

"Do you know who the poet was?" [George S. Patton asks Omar Bradley]

"Me."

On a good day, I might call myself a "soldier-poet." Or a "mil-poet."

And, for me, April 2015 is full of good days.

In November 2011, during a "Writing My Way Back Home" veterans writing workshop in Iowa City, Iowa, facilitator Emma Rainey offered a prompt following a session that featured readings of poems written from conflicts ranging from World War II to the Iraq War. While I've forgotten what the prompt was exactly, I haven't forgotten that a poem sprang to my notebook nearly fully formed. It had been generated by a fragment of memory, a half-anecdote of something that had happened upon my arrival as a civilian reporter to Afghanistan. My travel was there was relatively fresh—I'd embedded with my former military unit in May-June 2011. I hadn't yet figured out what this particular story meant, and it wasn't big enough for a even a blog-post. It generated a poem, however. And no one was more surprised about that than I.

More on that poem in a minute.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, 2014 was an extremely productive year for me, in terms of writing and publishing. It just wasn't in ways that I'd have been able to predict back in 2009. Editors at a number of literary journals and publications chose to publish my work. I am humbled and grateful and thrilled.

Recently, for example, the Veterans Writing Project's literary journal "O-Dark-Thirty" published a poem that I'd originally written for a love-themed book store poetry contest in 2014. Earlier, I'd become infatuated with a library find: "77 Love Sonnets" penned by Garrison Keillor.

If you live in Minnesota—a.k.a. 34th Inf. "Red Bull" Division territory—you know Keillor's work on the radio staple "Prairie Home Companion." Also, his daily poetic reflections on the nationally syndicated "Writers Almanac." (True-believer Red Bull Rising readers might even remember my serendipitiously encountering the latter while visiting Iowa's 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Inf. Div. at Camp Shelby, Minn. in 2010.)

So, when Keillor's own Common Good Books, St. Paul, Minn., announced a 2014 contest for love poems—to be directed at nearly any person, place, or thing—I was inspired to write about the time Uncle Sam took away troops' World War II-era M1 helmets ("steel pots"), and gave us the heavy, Kevlar helmets that were part of the "Personnel Armor System for Ground Troops" (PSAGT, pronounced "paz-get"). The new "K-pot" headgear had some decided advantages. For example, they could actually stop a bullet. But they lacked some of the utilities of their predecessors—like being to cook, bathe, and carry spent brass in them. They also gave me headaches.

Your greater weight now floats on donut foam,
and creases lines across my forehead bared—
with leathered sweatband held in place like Rome
once clipped a crown of thorns, my skull is snared.

My poem didn't win, but, in contest notes, my "love sonnet to a new K-pot" was quoted by Keillor himself:

But, fragile shell that’s spun from Kevlar thread,
you have one purpose: Save my pounding head.

You can now read the whole work in its entirety (although some language may not be suitable for work) here. Enjoy!

April 2015 will also see the publication of my military-themed poetry in Midwestern Gothic No. 17. (Available in print or Amazon Kindle here.) The work fuses experiences of growing up listening to farm reports on the early morning radio; catching up on community happenings at a small town diner; and reading perennial news items about the start of "fighting seasons" downrange in Afghanistan. In war, baseball, and farming, hope springs eternal.

And, finally, about that poem that I'd originally penned in that 2011 weekend writing workshop: It will soon see "print" via my favorite military science-fiction writer and artist Howard Tayler. The creator of "Schlock Mercenary" and the 70 Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries promises to release "The Unofficial Anecdotal History of Challenge Coins" as a free PDF on or before April 14! (Per comments section here.)

The anthology was a bonus project from Tayler's 2013 use of Kickstarter to crowd-fund "Schlock" challenge coins. He's about to launch another Kickstarter project—this one for a role playing game—but his personal code of ethics won't let him move on until all aspects of his earlier project are final. Rather than submit a challenge coin anecdote, I sent a poem.

As always, I'll keep you posted as to when it hits the Internet. And yet more of my work is forthcoming this summer and fall: the Water Wood Press war poetry anthology "No, Achilles"; the Corn Belt Almanac from The Head & The Hands Press; and the U.S. Air Force Academy's literary journal "War, Literature and the Arts," to name just a few!

Will all this poetry and nonsense change the war or change the world? Probably not. But it's fun, and I'm learning new things. And maybe, I'll be able to teach a thing or two as well.

Happy National Poetry Month! The Red Bull says: "Attack! Attack! Attack!"

Minneapolis' Guthrie Theater Revisits Veterans' Tales

An updated production of "Telling: Minnesota," a collection of military veterans' stories presented by the veterans themselves, will return to Guthrie Theater's Dowling Studio in Minneapolis, March 6-15, 2015.

Friday and Saturday shows of "Telling: Minnesota 2015" are 7:30 p.m. Sunday shows are 1 p.m.

General admission tickets are available FREE via on-line registration here. Seating begins 30 minutes before curtain.

As in other Telling Project productions, playwrights generate scripts based on long hours of interviews with the veterans themselves. Then, they work with those veterans to interweave stories into a unique, 3-act stage performance.

Since 2008, Telling Project performances have been conducted in more than 30 cities and eight states nationwide. This will be the first in Minnesota. For more information on the Austin, Texas-based non-profit organization, visit: thetellingproject.org.

According to press materials, "Telling: Minnesota" features stories that:

range from capture and escape in Southeast Asia and Scud missile attacks in Saudi Arabia, to accompanying Lynn Anderson to the Marine Corps Ball, flying injured soldiers out of Iraq and Afghanistan, [and] repairing helicopters in South Korea and military sexual trauma in the Army. "Telling: Minnesota" is an unvarnished look at the heroism, absurdity, horror, wonder and banality of military life as told by the Minnesotans to whom these things happened.

'The Activity' Comes to a Close, While War Rages On

After a few decades away from the practice—I had stopped patrolling 7-Eleven spinner racks by the late-1980s—I recently returned to reading comic books because of two things:

1. My grade-school warrior-princess was asking me why there weren't any girl heroes. 

2. At a Military Experience & the Arts conference, I heard some comics creators and veterans discuss the art form as a means of exploring military histories, personal wartime experiences, and even emerging trends and technologies.

In 2011 and 2012, Image Comics' "The Activity," and DC Comics' "Men at War," and Top Cow's "Think Tank" were my beachheads into the genre of 21st century war comics.

Notably, "Men at War" featured a reboot of the iconic World War II-era character Sgt. Rock, who hadn't been featured in his own book since 1988. Each of us had been away too long.

In 2012, Marvel Comics launched Fury MAX: My War Gone By a second volume of Fury MAX, in which writer Garth Ennis returned to tell an blood-spattered story that followed Nick Fury through Cuba, Vietnam, and Nicaragua. Not my wars, but certain the backdrops of my childhood and adolescence.

The "Men at War" series lasted only seven issues. DC Comics tried again with a dinosaur-filled "G.I. Combat" series and, more recently, with "Star Spangled War Stories, featuring G.I. Zombie."

Now, I'm not a purist. War comics make for some strange bedfellows. I'm happy to include elements of horror, alternate history, historical fantasy, super powers, and even sentient chimpanzees in my personal definition of of the genre. For me, the larger question is whether or not they contribute to readers' understanding of the costs, individual and collective, of going to war.

I'm not usually attracted to undead story lines, for example, but I think Mark Sable's "Graveyard of Empires" (2011-2012) is mostly successful in its gritty depiction of counterinsurgency, defense contracting, and nation-building in Afghanistan. If the presence of zombies in the story helps expose readers to questions regarding U.S./NATO involvement there, so much the better.

War comics, bottom line, should be a big G.I. tent.

As a middle-aged journalist and historian focused on modern-day conflicts, however, I find myself motivated more by projects that are more founded in reality. War is strange and beautiful and nasty enough, without adding literal demons.

Take, for example, Ennis's history-infused "War Stories" (DC Vertigo); "Battlefields" (Dynamite Entertainment), and the current ongoing "War Stories" (Avatar Press).

And the work of artist-veterans, such as Will Eisner's "Last Day In Vietnam" (2000) and Joe Kubert's Dong Xoai, Vietnam 1965 (2011).

I'm also drawn to comics journalism about war and the edges of conflict, such as David Axe's War is Boring" and Joe Sacco's collection "Journalism".

All this pull-list pedigree leads me back to "The Activity"—written by Nathan Edmondson, drawn by Mitch Gerads—which started me on this comics journey, and which apparently has concluded as a series with a double-sized issue No. 15. Given the creative team's commitments to a couple of Marvel NOW titles, readers of "The Activity" had to wait 14 months between issue Nos. 15 and 16. It was worth it, and I appreciated the creators bringing home a bit of closure.

If it's not completely over, the series is at least reportedly on an extended hiatus. Or, as soldiers might call such a thing, a "tactical pause."

If you're not into collecting monthly "floppies," the third volume of the series is now available in trade paperback. The first trade paperback is here. The second is here.

Throughout the series, Edmondson and Gerads got an awful lot right. The primary thread followed Team Omaha, a 5-member special forces team from the military's Intelligence Support Activity. The tone was realistic and plausible, without sacrificing drama and story. Think of it as a tactical-vested "Mission: Impossible." In keeping with the series' tagline, "warfare without warning," Team Omaha hid both in the shadows and in the great wide opens. Then, it decisively brought the hurt.

In one notable story, Team Omaha even deployed to American soil. In issue No. 11, the team has to track down a bomb hidden in Minneapolis. That story hit close to home, and explored briefly the realities of our post-9/11 world, without feeling alarmist, jingoist, or pessimistic.

There were lots of names in "The Activity." Lots of teams. Lots of agencies. You needed a playbook to figure out who was doing what to whom, who was on the injured list, and who was still in the game. Helpfully, each issue provided a network diagram depicting the status of each character. Those pages reminded me of tracking charts I'd used in the military, working in Tactical Operations Centers.

The dialogue was right. There were jokes. There were things left unsaid. There was quiet understanding of where you'd been, and where you were going. This was how soldiers and veterans talk with each other, and relate with each other. In life, and in death.

The weaponry, vehicles, and military equipment were correct, too. Anyone who's familiar with Gerads' depictions of Marvel's The Punisher, and with Edmondson's writing in both the current Punisher and Black Widow series, will recognize the realism they bring to their craft. This is how gear looks. This is how gear is used.

After all, nothing breaks down the Fourth Wall for a veteran faster than a badly drawn tank.

Throughout the series, the colors on page were practically jazz—part of the mood, providing the movement from scene to scene, and the visual fireworks of splash and bang-bang. Essentially, the application of color was its own character in "The Activity." It became part of the book's terrain, the weather, the environment. (I was continually reminded that Army briefs such factors under the heading of "enemy situation.") Those responsible included colorists Andy W. Clift, Jon Scrivens, Joseph Frazzetta.

And, finally, I should call out at least one of the characters. I have a soft spot for Leslie Ryan (Callsign: "Fiddler"), a red-haired Army sergeant that is part of Team Omaha. She's a strong, capable, and, most of all, realistic female protagonist. I'd be proud to have her on my team, or to be on hers. When I was in uniform, I encountered plenty of such soldiers, male and female.

So, if my daughter ever asks about my war comics—when she's much, much older, of course—I'll happily share with her "The Activity." I hope that it will ignite a conversation.

A conversation about how war is hell, and how we should try to avoid it.

And about the human stories that happen, when we don't.

Operation Reindeer Games 2014: This is Not a Drill!

PHOTO: Army Spc. Jess Nemec and 1st Lt. Sarah Johnson/Released

Blog-editor's note: This post was originally published on the Red Bull Rising blog Dec. 23, 2013, and again here at the now-archived mil-blog digest "The Sandbox."

We've since FRAGO'd the dates and the illumination data, and topped it off anew with a holiday shot (above) from the Minnesota National Guard's 2nd Battalion, 147th Assault Helicopter (2-147 A.H.B.), 34th Combat Aviation Brigade (34th CAB).

Those Red Bull aviation soldiers are currently deployed to Camp Beuhring, Kuwait, and elsewhere. Check out more photographs from "Task Force Shield" at here or here. And remember those deployed and their families in thoughts and prayers this holiday season.

*****

OPORD 12-2014: "OPERATION REINDEER GAMES" ... ALL TIMES SIERRA

I. SITUATION: TASK FORCE SHERPA continues holiday sustainment operations vicinity FOB LIVINGROOM.

1. Enemy Forces: 

Refer to Appendix X, "Naughty List." 

2. Friendly Forces / Attachments: 

a. One (1) soldier, callsign "SCOOP," from TF GI-JOE Mobile Public Affairs Detachment, location OP ELFONSHELF.  

b. One (1) Pathfinder-qualified soldier from 1225th Special Operations Aviation Regiment ("The Night-stockers"), callsign "RUDOLPH," location AO ROOFTOP.

c. Five (1) soldiers from 334th Brigade Support Battalion, 2-34th BCT attached as Forward Logistics Elf Element (FLEE), callsign "WORKSHOP," location AO UNDERTREE.

d. Ten (10) 03s-a-leaping from HHC, 2-34th BCT attached as command-and-control cell.

PHOTO: 34th CAB, Minn. Army National Guard, 2013

3. Weather and Terrain: 

High of 29 degrees Fahrenheit; low of 18 degrees. No effects on current snow cover. Condition WHITE for sleigh-borne operations.

4. Illumination:

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow is not likely to give the lustre of mid-day to objects below. Moonset is 242017DEC14; peak illumination is 10 percent. Civil twilight is 250708DEC14. Sunrise is 250739DEC14. 

As noted in After Action Reviews of past holiday ops, however, SUGARPLUM elements have been known to stir well before light conditions warrant, or even Christmas Reveille.

II. MISSION

"TF SHERPA secures LANDING ZONE CHIMNEY NLT 242330DEC14 and conducts resupply via reindeer-drawn miniature sleigh during hours of darkness prior to 250710DEC14. On order, commences opening of presents and distribution of holiday themes and messages."

III. EXECUTION

1. Commander's Intent:

TF SHERPA will conduct safe and secure receipt of Christmas gifts, minimizing boots-on-ground time and distractions for RED-RYDER-6. Endstate is a Happy Christmas to all personnel, and to all a good night.

2. Concept of Operation:

We will start by ceasing all garrison activities, troop movements, and roving patrols beginning 242100DEC14. No personnel should be stirring. Not even a mouse. Stockings will be hung by the objective with care. All SUGARPLUM elements will be nestled all snug in their bunks. 

RED-RYDER-6 will arrive LZ CHIMNEY during hours of darkness, and will successfully evade detection by SUGARPLUM elements and local civilian air-traffic control. 

Following the operation, TF SHERPA personnel will prepare to conduct Key Leader Engagements with both sides of the family. 

Throughout this operation, TF SHERPA personnel will also reinforce themes and messages of "Peace on Earth, goodwill to all" via appropriate official STRATCOM channels, including social media and telephone.

3. Maneuver:

Under no circumstances should unauthorized personnel stir to investigate clatter from exterior areas, including rooftops.

4. Fires:

On order, 1-194th Field Artillery will provide 1.55 cm artillery-delivered tinsel as chaff to defeat detection of TF RED-RYDER by regional air-traffic control radar.

5. Coordinating instructions:

Authorized sleeping uniform is kerchief, cap, or green fleecy hat; MultiCam pajamas; and red-and-white "candy stripe" reflective safety belt. Noise and light discipline will be maintained per SOP. Senior personnel are encouraged to employ red-light headlamps or night-vision devices.

6. Specific instructions:

Headquarters will redeploy public affairs team member SCOOP from OP ELFONSHELF to vicinity LZ CHIMNEY for documentation of gift-giving operations NLT 250700DEC14. Mission focus will be on "telling the Christmas story by telling our Army story."

IV. SERVICE & SUPPORT

1. 334th BSB will provide (1) Meal, Ready-to-Eat to RED-RYDER-6. Ranger cookies and shelf-stable milk are appropriate. On order, also provide one (1) 64 lb. bag of Reindeer Chow.

2. Religious services are 241900DEC14, and 251000DEC14.

V. COMMAND & SIGNAL

1. Location of Key Leaders: 

HOUSEHOLD-6 and HOUSEHOLD-7 will be in the command bunker after 242100DEC14. 

2. Succession of command: 

HOUSEHOLD-6, HOUSEHOLD-7, SUGARPLUM-1, SUGARPLUM-2, and the dog INDIANA. 

3. Callsigns: 

Holiday callsigns are NOT authorized. Under no circumstances should SUGARPLUM elements refer to HOUSEHOLD-6 as "NUTCRACKER-6." The previously published SOI was in error. HOUSEHOLD-7 is very, very sorry. 

4. Challenge / Password for 24DEC14 is: "SMOKE" / "WREATH." 

5. Challenge / Password for 25DEC14 is: "BOWLFUL" / "JELLY." 

6. Running password is "FIGGY PUDDING."

VI. SAFETY

1. Use ground guides when backing reindeer. 

2. Use drip pans and chocks when parking sleighs. 

3. Don't drink nog and drive. 

4. "Safety first, Christmas always."