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The Word of the Year 2019

1. Merriam-Webster chose "they." The singular "they" is used to refer to a person whose gender identity is nonbinary. Actually, the word "nonbinary" was added to the dictionary in September 2019.

2. Dictionary.com's word of the year was "existential." We face an existential threat in climate change, and we elect a moron.

3. The Oxford word of the year is "climate emergency." As I type this I am watching the warmest winter ever here in New Hampshire.

For me, either #2 or 3 works. I will pick #2 as my choice because we have an existential climate threat and an existential US government threat.

Falling off the Empire State Building, An Act of Love

I just finished reading my first review for my new chapbook from Rattle. I found it interesting because the reviewer called it "Mostly poems about dying." I thought just the opposite. I thought they were mostly poems about love. We all have to die. I lived in a family that was not afraid to talk about death and not afraid to face death head on. The love comes from being there when our loved ones are dying. The old expression about "surrounded by family and friends" was very important to us. We wanted to be there if at all possible. That's where the love part comes in. And that, my friends, is the most important part of dying. I always consider it an honor and an act of love to be at someone's deathbed.

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Nuclear Weapons and the Ukraine

In 1991, the people of the Ukraine voted an overwhelming 90% to secede from the Soviet Union. The new Ukrainian government traded in its huge nuclear arsenal for "security assurances." Three major nuclear powers--the UK, the US, and Russia--agreed to respect Ukraine's existing borders and its sovereignty. The new democracy was also hoping for help from other nations to get started. They hoped for help from all sides.

How did that work out for them? Eventually Russia would invade the Crimaean Penninsula and take it over while they were also encouraging and secretly fighting alongside Russian separatists in East Ukraine. Would that have happened if Ukraine held on to its nuclear weapons?

The greatest international success of the George W. Bush administration was getting Muammar Gaddafi to give up Libya's nuclear weapons. How did that work out for them? Libya is in a state of chaos now. Gaddafi died like a dog in the street.

We want North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. How would a dictator like Kim maintain power if he gives up his weapons? He knows what happened elsewhere.

This is why dictators want nuclear weapons. It gives them a bit more protection from outside interference in their nefarious dealings. We have to find better ways to transition from a nuclear power to a stable government of some other sort.

My Reading History: Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer

In August 1969, I was stationed at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, training to be an English language instructor for South Vietnamese soldiers. In my free time, I went to the base library to find something to read. When I spotted Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller, I thought, "Wow, how cool is this!"

It wasn't so much the book itself that wowed me. It was the fact that a United States Air Force base would have it available to read. To me, it smacked of freedom. I felt a sense of pride and love of country. Any country that allows such a book to be available for its soldiers must be a pretty cool place.

I haven't lost that love even in these trying times. Listening to Adam Schiff speaking at the impeachment trial of Donald Trump rekindled that feeling.

A Bullet Is Not a Vampire

My poem "A Bullet Is Not a Vampire" was chosen by Oregon poet Danny Earl Simmons to be on his blog as an example for his column called "Poems I Admire." I was honored to have one of my poems chosen. It was first published in the United Kingdom journal Snakeskin and it is also in my book Scream Wounds.

In writing the poem, I was looking for metaphors that could show how bullets enter a body without using graphic violence. I have known soldiers who have had terrible gunshot wounds, and I have read stories about bullets striking people absolutely anywhere on their body. Sometimes a bullet misses a critical organ by a fraction of an inch. Sometimes a soldier is not so lucky.

I have also learned from my experiences in Vietnam that a bullet can "tumble." We used M-16 rifles where the bullet entry point would make a small hole, but the exit point would be a large opening because of the bullet tumbling through the body. I was thinking of that sort of mess when I wrote the poem.

The central metaphor about the vampire has to do with those creatures needing to be invited in to a house before they can enter. One of the best recent examples of that was the terrific 2008 Swedish horror film Let the Right One In based on the 2004 novel of the same title by John Ajvide Lindqvist.

I would like to return a favor with a favor and urge my readers to sign up for Danny's blog. He posts his poems and poems by others that he admires. Can't go wrong with that.

Here is a link to his blog:

The Chin Comm Hand Grenade, Part 2

Another takeaway for me in my poem "The Chin Comm Hand Grenade" is how easy it was for the soldier to mail a grenade home from Vietnam. Granted the grenade was not active, but it was still a grenade. Fortunately, it is much more difficult to do that today.

When I was in Vietnam in 1970, I heard stories about soldiers mailing home their M-16s. They would take it apart and mail it home in pieces.

I never knew of anyone who actually mailed a gun home. Mostly I just heard a lot of talk. Rumors have a life of their own. When they get repeated enough, they become real. And I believe M-16s were probably mailed home by soldiers.

Here is the link to the poem in the journal Uppagus:



Here is the link to my book Scream Wounds containing the poem:

The Chin Comm Hand Grenade, Part 1

A "chin comm hand grenade" is the slang expression for a "Chinese communist hand grenade. Since it is slang, I am actually not sure if "comm" should be spelled with one "m" or two. I have seen it both ways. These grenades were made in China and then sold to the North Vietnamese Army (NVA). This poem, which is linked below, was one of the few times I was able to get an inkling into what it must have been like to be an NVA soldier.

The story implies that these grenades failed a lot. Can you imagine an NVA soldier throwing a grenade like this in battle and having it not work time and time again? Would they even be able to complain about it to their superiors?

The American sergeant in the poem mocks the grenade. He treats it as if was not even dangerous. He must have seen many examples of failures. Thus, he was immune to fear.

American soldiers often complained about their M-16 rifles jamming. I was never able to record a specific example, just rumor. I do not think they were anywhere near as bad a problem as the Chinese made grenades were.

The classic work of literature about a similar problem is the play All My Sons by Arthur Miller. In that drama, the protagonist is responsible for selling planes to the military that are not built properly and can crash. Pilots die until his son finally dies in an accident. He realizes then that they were all his sons.

Here is the link to the poem in the journal Uppagus:



Here is the link to my book Scream Wounds containing the poem:

Scream Wounds, Part 1: What Is a Scream Wound?

A scream wound is a wound so painful that even a hardened combat soldier cannot help but scream from the pain. When I first heard that phrase, I knew it had to be the title of my new book of poems based on veterans' stories about Vietnam and other wars. It is the perfect metaphor for the Vietnam War: a wound that makes me want to scream.

I have personal scream wounds as well. Earlier in my blog I mentioned two friends of mine who died in Vietnam: Billy Cyr and Bubbles Napierata. We played on the same Boys Club basketball team together. I also lost a great college friend: George Fell. He died in Cambodia while I was getting laid in Saigon. A fourth friend, Ozzie Connors, died several years after the war from wounds he suffered in the war itself.

I might even call some of my wounds crying wounds because they make me want to cry. Some day I just may do that in the middle of a reading.

There are scream wounds for what is happening in the world today. A friend of mine said that her scream wound was hearing about a second mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, right after one in El Paso, Texas. I have no argument with that choice.

Maybe we all have scream wounds inside of us.

Here are links to my new book and ebook:

Abortion, Part 3: The Old Joke

There is an old joke about the so-called "pro-life" movement. It goes like this: "The anti-abortion pro-life movement believes that life begins at conception and ends at birth."

The Republican Party is now the so-called "pro-life" party. Where do they stand on social programs that actually help people who are already born? They choose tax cuts for the filthy rich almost every time over any help for the poor. They even tried to cut Head Start Programs. Those programs are geared to helping poor families who often have problems dealing with a disabled child. That one example alone tells you all you need to know.

A Party that was "pro-life" would be supportive of health insurance coverage that would protect children and adults. They would support public education and help with college student debt. The list could go on. Tax cuts should not get in the way of any of that.

Abortion, Part 2: Early Marriage

In Abortion, Part 1, I mentioned how young women--girls actually--are forced into marriage. Child marriage laws are backdoor anti-abortion measures. Access to abortion for young girls who have been raped is often not available in many states. They are then forced to get married.

Only Delaware and New Jersey have so far outlawed child marriage completely. In the last three or four years, thirteen states have raised the minimum age for minors to marry, a sign that some progress is being made. Often the opposition covers itself in the banner of freedom, usually from libertarian groups. Religious groups can also support child marriage. Chris Christie as the governor of New Jersey once vetoed a bill on "religious grounds." This year my state of New Hampshire finally raised the age to sixteen with judicial approval.

We need to empower our young girls and boys, not make their lives more difficult for them. We also need to support such efforts around the world.