Thank You for Your Service: Collected Poems

by W.D. Ehrhart

Overview

Fifty-five years in the writing, these are the collected poems of W.D. Ehrhart, one of the major figures in Vietnam War literature. Arranged chronologically, it allows readers to trace the development of a writer whose talents are bound together by the lingering physical, psychological, political and intellectual sensibilities the author first developed as a young enlisted Marine during the Vietnam War. And while many of the poems deal with the author's encounter with the Vietnam War and its endless consequences, the poems range widely in content from family and friends to nature and the environment to the blessings and absurdities of the human condition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476678535
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	03/01/2019
Pages:	310
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Memoirist, poet, editor, and Marine veteran, W.D. Ehrhart taught English and history at the Haverford School in Haverford, Pennsylvania. The author of twenty books, his prose and poetry have appeared in hundreds of publications including the Los Angeles Times, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Utne Reader, Reader’s Digest, American Poetry Review and the Virginia Quarterly Review. He was a major presence in the Ken Burns and Lynn Novick documentary The Vietnam War.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments deletexv
Introduction by Lorrie Goldensohn deletexix
Juvenilia, 1963–1967
So Much Time
Excerpts from the Mind of the Writer
Friendship
Viet Nam—February 1967
1969–1971
Listening Post
One Night on Guard Duty
The Sniper’s Mark
The Generals’ War
Hunting
Christ
Gettysburg
Dancing
Starships
To Swarthmore
1971–1973
Perimeter Guard
Souvenirs
Sergeant Jones
The Rat
Mail Call
The One That Died
Night Patrol
The Next Step
Guerrilla War
Time on Target
The Hawk and Two Suns
The Ambush
Another Life
The Bob Hope Christmas
Special
Coming Home
A Relative Thing
Old Myths
A Generation of Peace
Imagine
Rehoboth
The Living
September
Yours
Charleston
1974
Rhythm
The Flying Gypsy
Myers, Messick & Me
1975
The Last Day
The Obsession
The Traveler
Granddad
To the Asian Victors
The Fool
Geese
Bicentennial
Money in the Bank
Shadows
Making the Children Behave
The Silent
1976
Vietnam Veterans, After All
To Those Who Have Gone Home Tired
Going Home with the Monkeys
Ghosts
Going Down Off Columbia
Bar
To Maynard on the Long
Road Home
The Death of Kings
Colorado
Rootless
Letters
Cascais
Jimmy
1977
The Trial
Leaving the Guns Behind
Helpless
Coma
Letter
Portrait of Friends
After the Fire
Desire
Cast Out
Twodot, Montana
Growing Older Alone
The Last Prayer
Michelangelo
Sanctuary
Welcome
Empire
1978
Vietnamese-Cambodian
Border War
The Spiders’ White Dream of Peace
An Exorcism
A Confirmation
Driving Through
Wisconsin
Great Horned Owl
Eighteen Months in Chicago
Waking Alone in Darkness
Peary & Henson Reach the North Pole
The Teacher
Turning Thirty
Again, Rehoboth
Companions
Last of the ­Hard-hearted Ladies
1979
Fog
Another Way of Seeing
The Grim Art of Teaching
The Dancers
Lost at Sea
Afraid of the Dark
The Dream
Driving into the Future
Sunset
1980
The Farmer
Near-sighted
Channel Fever
The World As It Is
The Vision
The Eruption of Mount St. Helens
Matters of the Heart
Briana
1981
Gifts
Sound Advice
Continuity
New Jersey Pine Barrens
Pagan
Deer
A Warning to My Students
1982
Surviving the Bomb One
More Day
The Blizzard of ­Sixty-six
Letter to the Survivors
Everett Dirksen, His Wife, You & Me
High Country
Cowgirls, Teachers & Dreams
Canoeing the Potomac
“…the light that cannot fade…”
The Outer Banks
The Suicide
1983
Climbing to Heaven
Moments When the World
Consents
Letter from an Old Lover
Appearances
Responsibility
The Reason Why
The Invasion of Grenada
1984
On the Right to Vote
1985
Winter Bells
Parade
POW/MIA
1986
Apples
For Mrs. Na
The Ducks on Wissahickon Creek
Twice Betrayed
Water
Adoquinas
Heather
1987
The Beech Tree
Some Other World
Nicaragua Libre
Why I Don’t Mind Rocking
Leela to Sleep
The Trouble with Poets
What Keeps Me Going
Small Song for Daddy
The Storm
Starting Over
Second Thoughts
1988
Lost Years
Chasing Locomotives
Secrets
Lenin
Keeping My Distance
Just for Laughs
The Next World War
Not Your Problem
For Anne, Approaching Thirty-five
1989
For a Coming Extinction
What You Gave Me
The Origins of Passion
America Enters the 1990s
The Way Light Bends
The Poet as Athlete
In the Valley of the Shadow
How I Live
The Facts of Life
The Heart of the Poem
What We’re Buying
1990
A Scientific Treatise for
My Wife
Song for Leela, Bobby & Me
The Old Soldiers
Love in an Evil Time
A Small Romance
The Children of Hanoi
Who Did What to Whom
The Lotus Cutters of Hồ Tây
Guns
Singing Hymns in Church
1991
The Cradle of Civilization
Finding My Old Battalion
Command Post
The Simple Lives of Cats
After the Latest Victory
A Vietnamese Bidding Farewell to the Remains of an American
Star Light, Star Bright
More Than You Ever
Imagined
America in the Late 20th Century
The Exercise of Power
The Open Door
Governor Rhodes Keeps
His Word
1992
The Distance We Travel
What War Does
Sleeping with General Chi
Making Love in the Garden
What I Know About Myself
On Any Given Day
Guatemala
Long Shot ­O’Leary Ain’t
Dead Yet
Midnight at the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial
The Last Time I Dreamed
About the War
1993
Small Talk
How It All Comes Back
Purple Heart
Red-tailed Hawks
Mostly Nothing Happens
1994
Beautiful Wreckage
Strangers
Not for You
Prayer for My Enemies
Suffer the Little Children
Sarajevo
Dropping Leela Off at School
After the Winter of 1994
1995
Drought
Variations on Squam Lake
The Perversion of Faith
Reading Out Loud
1996
Christmas Miracles
The First French Kiss
Visiting My Parents’ Graves
Cycling the Rosental
The Rocker
Ginger
Rehoboth, One Last Time
Night Sailing
Is It Always This Hard?
What Goes Around Comes Around
Because It’s Important
I Just Want You to Know
The Sergeant
Jogging with the Philosopher
A Meditation on Family
Geography and a Prayer for My Daughter
1997
Cliches Become Cliches
Because They’re True
Detroit River Blues
Artsy Fartsy Whiskey & Girls
Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer
The Orphan
1998
Music Lessons
1999
For My Daughter, Alone in the World
Gravestones at Oxwich Bay
Sins of the Fathers
2000
What Better Way to Begin
Letting Go
Sleeping with the Dead
On the Eve of Destruction
The Wreckage Along the Road
2001
The Damage We Do
September 11th
The Bombing of Afghanistan
2002
Seminar on the Nature of Reality
2003
Home Before Morning
Breakfast with You and Emily Dickinson
2004
Kosovo
Manning the Walls
Meditations on Pedagogy
All About Death
All About Love
Golfing with My Father
2005
Coaching Winter Track in Time of War
Reflections on the Papacy
Oh, Canada
Primitive Art, or: The Art of the Primitive
Home on the Range
2006
What the Fuss Is All About
Temple Poem
Down and Out in Darfur
2007
The Work of Love
The Bodies Beneath the Table
Turning Sixty
2008
What Makes a Man
Extra! Extra!
Epiphany
The Secret Lives of Boys
2009
Burning Leaves
Life in the Neighborhood
2010
Redipuglia
Children of Adam & Eve
2011
How History Gets Written
2012
Patrick
Judas Joyful
Cheating the Reaper
2013
What It Signifies
First Day of School
2014
The Baby in the Box
Long Time Gone
2015
Praying at the Altar
Spontaneous Combustion
It’s About You
The Amish Boys on Sunday
2016
Here’s to Us
I Dream of Alternate
Histories
Old Men Bodysurfing
The Poetry of Science
Lunch at the A&N Diner
Making America Great Again
2017
Dancing in the Streets
Silver Linings
2018
The Right to Bear Arms
Playing It Safe
Thank You for Your Service
Also by W.D. Ehrhart
Military History of W.D. Ehrhart
About the Poet
Index of Titles
Index of First Lines

Editorial Reviews

Ehrhart’s Vietnam poems make a compelling argument against comfort, against apology, and against redemption….Ehrhart’s bleak beseechings have more in common with the poetry of Thomas Hardy and Stephen Crane than that of other Vietnam-era poets….Thank You for Your Service endures as a testament to truth-telling, the act of witness, and one ragged heart staying open after war, and for this, readers area should be grateful.”—The Rupture; “A hunger for honesty and a charged lyricism have always made Bill Ehrhart’s poetry remarkably his own. Though he’s best known for his Vietnam War poems with their sharp moral outcry and humane insight, Thank You for Your Service: Collected Poems includes many lovely poems not about Vietnam. This book deserves serious recognition.”—John Balaban, poet-in-residence, North Carolina State University, author of Remembering Heaven’s Face; “Bill Ehrhart is the finest combat veteran poet to come out of the Vietnam War. But his poetry transcends his war experience and eloquently reveals the healing powers of family and love. In all of his written work, Bill is brutally honest in the revelation of his own and our society’s flaws and virtues. He is the master of sharing the most complex truths in seemingly simple language. He is a poet who will represent the important truths of our time for generations to come.”—Joseph T. Cox, Colonel, US Army, retired, author of The Written Wars; “Amazing, just amazing. Profound, powerful, startling. I’d be glad to be able to write these poems. I’m glad you can. And do. They’re really good. And good to read. Thank you for what you write, for what you remember.”—Daniel Ellsberg, author of Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers and The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner; “W.D. Ehrhart has been leading the vanguard of Vietnam War poets for decades. It’s hardly news that Ehrhart has garnered the reputation of ‘the dean of Vietnam war poetry.’ But his poems over the last several decades are also steadily gaining him recognition as a major contemporary American poet, with a range far wider and deeper than that of just a Vietnam War poet. In fact, I cannot think of a poet who has been giving us deeper and more valuable insights to our epoch. His poetry is not just insightful and beautiful but also extraordinarily accessible.”— H. Bruce Franklin, John Cotton Dana Professor of English & American Studies, Rutgers-Newark, Emeritus, author of Crash Course: From the Good War to the Forever War; “W.D. Ehrhart is one of the most important and enduring writers to have emerged from the American war in Vietnam. Since the publication of his first collection, A Generation of Peace, in 1975, his prodigious poetic production has rightfully earned him a reputation as one of the preeminent poets of the war—a war that provoked an exceptional outpouring of poetry. The significance of his contribution to this extraordinary body of work cannot be overstated. Still, it would be a mistake to think of Ehrhart as solely a war poet. His pieces offer interesting reflections on many aspects of American life, and these poems are no less penetrating in their vision, skilled in their description, profound in their thinking, or powerful in their emotion than the war works. Ehrhart is a poet who deserves to be widely read.”—Dr. Adam Gilbert, Leverhulme Fellow, University of Sussex, author of A Shadow on Our Hearts: Soldier-Poetry, Morality, and the American War in Vietnam; “Bill Ehrhart is the poet perhaps of the Vietnam War.”—Studs Terkel, oral historian and author of The Good War; “Ehrhart’s Vietnam poems make a compelling argument against comfort, against apology, and against redemption. ...Ehrhart’s bleak beseechings have more in common with the poetry of Thomas Hardy and Stephen Crane than that of other Vietnam-era poets... Thank You for Your Service endures as a testament to truth-telling, the act of witness, and one ragged heart staying open after war, and for this, readers everywhere should be grateful.”—The Rupture. Reviews of The Bodies Beneath the Table: “The Poetry of W.D. Ehrhart is sublime, earthy, gritty and delicate, precise and original, uniquely appealing to both the heart and the intellect.”—M. L. Liebler, Wide Awake in Someone Else’s Dream; “Ehrhart takes the elemental experiences of our daily lives and transforms them into moments of compelling insight. These poems resonate with grace and decency.”—Dale Ritterbusch, Far from the Temple of Heaven. Reviews of Beautiful Wreckage: “Welded in the fires of Vietnam, these strong, sure, memorable poems encompass love, family, and supple lyrics like ‘The Way Light Bends.’ The clarity of vision and depth of feelings in these pages will enhance Bill Ehrhart’s standing as a major voice of his generation.”—Daniel Hoffman, poetry consultant to the Library of Congress, now known as Poet Laureate of the United States; “Bill Ehrhart is a wonderful poet, a force of nature, a conscience that won’t let us off the hook. His writing is not the fashionable embroidery that these days too often passes for poetry. There are neither ready-made emotions nor ready-made answers here, only authentic experience, transmitted indelibly by Ehrhart’s crat and art. Anyone who can read this book without tears would be well-advised to go back and learn again how to read, and how to live.”—Philip Appleman, professor emeritus, Indiana University. Reviews of Just for Laughs: “Above all, Ehrhart’s poems warn, we are accountable to future generations; we have a choice about what values we will pass on and which stories we will tell.”—Lorrie Smith, Landing Zones: Approaches to Literature of the Vietnam War; “Ehrhart’s voice may possess matter-of-fact rhythms, but that quality masques a content which bristles with intelligence and finally is downright startling.”—Michael Stephens, The Dramaturgy of Style; “Ehrhart’s poetry seems to catch in its flat cadences a tough realism and, through its accessible and direct mode of address, a genuine voice of conscience.”—Alf Louvre and Jeffrey Walsh, Tell Me Lies About Vietnam.

From the Publisher