Back to Vietnam

 “The Latitude of a Mercy,” poetry by Stefan Lovasik, 2021

Lovasik was a Special Forces sniper in the American war in Vietnam.  He now lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.  These 53 short poems mostly center on that war.  They might serve as therapy; as remembrance; as honoring; as nightmares.

This is not the gauzy ‘moon in June’ kind of poetry.  This is more like the ‘blood moon’ or more exactly, “blood lotus blossoming.”  Veterans try to forget but most can’t and Lovasik is one.  He empties and anesthetizes his memory by aestheticizing that war.

The collection varies from locations in Vietnam – the northwest corner of south Vietnam up by Khe Sanh, Lang Vei, LZ Brown and LZ Blue, Phnom Ke and Ca Lu; to locations in the ‘world’ – St. Paul, Narragansett, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Prague.  

Poetry is really about language communicating impressions.  He has some good phrases.

“..the smell of open wounds and damp rice.”

“…boys squeezing the triggers…”

“…our memories are exit wounds.”

“…grief-jeweled aoi dai.”

“Diamonds of expectations…”

“…black star trees bend,”

An 'aoi dai' is the sheath-like formal dress Vietnamese women wear, sometimes even on a bicycle or scooter.  One of the most straight poems is an angry recreation of D.H. Lawrence’s take on Jesus sexually ‘rising’ again.  Another is the memories of an “Old Soldier.”  The task is trying to explain to wives … or assholes who want you ‘to forget.’  He includes 4 poetic letters home. The jungle reigns, as does blood. In one poem they "light up a VC village" full of children and women.  Some of the poems are not about Vietnam but about the rest of the world.

These are not political poems – they are more of the ‘war is hell’ variety.  Many of these poems were too abstract for me – too full of language, not images. But perhaps your poetry skills are better than mine. 

Prior reviews on this subject, use blog search box upper left to investigate our 14 year archive:  “Welcome to Brooklyn Criminal Court” (Butters) or the word “Vietnam” to read many reviews of books on that war.  We carry a small collection of poetry  books, starting with the classic Howl by Allen Ginsburg.  We carry many books on the American war in Vietnam and the military.

And I got it at May Day Books!

The Cultural Marxist

June 19, 2021