Visions of War, Dreams of Peace: Writings of Women in the Vietnam War

by Lynda Van Devanter (Editor), Joan Furey (Editor)

Lynda Van Devanter--author of the backlist classic Home Before Morning, which inspired the TV show "China Beach"--edited this powerful collection of poems reminiscent of Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam. All author proceeds from the book will go to the Vietnam Women's Memorial Project. 6 photographs.

Dried corsages. Like swans on still water. Saturday night. Mellow on morphine. Letter from home. Like Emily Dickinson. Second tour. Grandfathers rocking. My dead are not silent. Initiated in agony / Dana Shuster --
Okinawa 1969. Seventeen summers after Vietnam / Mary Pat O'Connor --
7 times 52. Flashback. The best act in Pleiku. Holy Saturday 1971. Dreams that blister sleep / Sharon Grant --
Vietnam 1965 / Judith Drake --
Saigon. Mamsan. Pre-op. Road show. Combat zone. Snafu / Kathleen Trew --
In this land. The kid. Wounds of war. July 20, 1969. Dying with grace. Confession. Crone. In the war zone. Knowing / Marilyn McMahon --
A boom, a billow. Vo Thi Truong. Walking class. Row upon endless row. The Moon is a nuisance / Lady Borton --
Kenny / Emily Strange --
How do you say I love you in a war? Dear Mom. I know you've waited. Do you really want to know / Bobbie Trotter --
Two villages. Vermont Vietnam (I) / Grace Paley --
Vietnam. A nurse's lament. We went, we came. Our own parade / Janet Krouse Wyatt --
My son's childhood / Xuan Quynh --
Vigil. Recollection. Some days. The walk to the Wall. In war and peace. Guided journey. Flashdance. Camouflage. Peace. Coral Bay / Joan A. Furey --
Sister Mary. The coffee room soldier. Vietnam, oppressive heat. I hold them. Cordwood / Penny Kettlewell --
The friendship only lasted a few seconds. Being a vet is like losing a baby / Lily Lee Adams --
The Vietnamese mother / Huong Tram --
Hello, David. I went to Vietnam to heal. Where's the tripwire, Jack? / Dusty --
Cheated. To my unknown soldier boy / Mary Lu Ostergren Brunner --
The trouble is triteness / Winifred Schramm --
Flashbacks. The tears. The "Vietnam vet". The tears. Death speaks. Under the covers. Keep mum. The general's car. Armistice Day. The statue. The peace to end all wars / Norma J. Griffiths --
How many sounds? It's too easy. TV wars--first blood part II. Middle East montage. For Molly. Making friends / Lynda Van Devanter Buckley --
To An Phu. From this distance I talk to you / Ha Phuong --
Saving lives. Unseen. Hindsight / Mary O'Brien Tyrrell --
One small boy / Kathleen F. Harty --
Recovery / Mary Beyers Garrison --
In memoriam / Joan Parrot Skiba --
Eyes / Helen DeCrane Roth --
Left behind. Our war. It's been so long. "Thanks, nurse". / Diane Carlson Evans --
Dark angel / Joan Arrington Craigwell --
My war. Unnamed. Reunited / Diane C. Jaeger --
The gift in wartime. Dream of peace / Tran Mong Tu --
Where are they now? / Margaret Flatt --
Montagnard bracelets. Crying. Saigon? / Sara J. McVicker --
Look into my eyes and see. When the parade passed by / Joyce A. Merrill --
Images at the Wall / Linda Spoonster Schwartz --
Even now / Bernadette Harrod --
Confessional. Short 1968-1990 / Lou McCurdy Sorrin --
How do you say goodbye? / Penni Evans --
My letter to the Wall / Nguyen Ngoc Xuan --
Poem without name / Minh Duc Hoai Trinh

Genres: Poetry, War

244 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1991

About the author

Lynda Van Devanter was one of thousands of American women who served as nurses in Vietnam during the war. Like many of these other women, she worked grueling shifts in a poorly equipped hospital and treated horrible wounds. Upon returning to the United States, she struggled with feelings of anger, depression, and hopelessness with little support from either the U.S. government or American society. In fact, she found that women veterans were even more isolated than their male peers. Determined to help other women in the same situation, Van Devanter founded the Vietnam Veterans of America Women's Project in 1980. She also wrote a book about her experiences, Home before Morning, which brought national attention to the contributions of women veterans.

Reviews

[Claudia · Rating 5 out of 5]

My friend Britton warned me the quality was uneven in these poems. Not surprising, since most were written by women who didn't consider themselves poets. Many of these match Emily Dickinson's definition of poetry: they took the top of my head off.

Women served in Viet Nam; women saw horrendous suffering; they worked to save lives in a war that destroyed them. These poems have been collected by Van Devanter to give us a glimpse of the worlds these nurses saw. Sprinkled among the American women's poems are poetry of Vietnamese women's work, reminding us that all women see war in a different way than men.

I cannot wait to share this with my teacher friends who teach Tim O'Brien's THE THINGS THEY CARRIED. While his book tells a story only HE can tell, these poems tell of a world he and other soldiers could never imagine.

I think the poems written years after the war were my favorites; many were set at the Wall, and spoke of attempts to heal and bring worlds into perspective.

I borrowed this from a new friend, but now I own my own copy.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most impactful books that I have read regarding the war. The voices of the women are heard loud and clear. And, their stories and messages transcend gender. I have performed a number of these works at competitive readings, and there is never a dry eye in the room. To learn about their experience one only needs to open their minds and ears and listen.

[Ava]

This was incredibly eye-opening and incredibly sad. It gives a whole new perspective to the Vietnam War that most people, myself included, don't think about. The women were veterans too, and a whole other level of forgotten veteran. No one ever talks about the PTSD that the nurses faced and still face from being in active combat zones, especially ones in Vietnam. It's important to remember them too.

[Carla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Recommended by a friend who posted a verse on her FB page on Remembrance Day. This poems, writing by the women of Vietnam who we often do not hear from. Images, seered into their brain, changing the way they see the world forever. Beautiful and haunting.

[Professor Typewriter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection possesses some of the most poignant poems one could ever read. The poets, mostly nurses who served in Vietnam, produced lines and stanzas about the Vietnam War that are void of cliches and sentimentality. This anthology is a must have.

[Kayla Montgomery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Particularly meaningful if read after The Women and Healing Wounds. For the reader, and I don't often read poems, the poems of the writer's personal experiences foster a depth of understanding to the suffering of the veterans, all veterans after returning from Vietnam.

[Pratyosh Gogoi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful.

[behsforensics]

Cutting is for Thanks, Nurse
By Diane Carlson Evans

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Their poems mark a coming to grips with the experiences of war--mostly its aftermath in shattered bodies and souls since most of the contributors were nurses. Remembering that none of these women were drafted,the impact of going to serve but not being fully prepared for what they would see, and hear, and smell, was shaping and often shattering.
They reflect on the intimacy of being with young men at the instant of their death, the bond that prompted soldiers invariably to seek their mothers as they lay in extremis, the double failure of their country to recognize their service as in a failed war and as women.
There are also a series of poems triggered at "the Wall"--the VietNam Memorial in D.C.--and the reflective analysis and deep emotions that brings to them. One writes movingly,

Once we were children too
Growing up in the American Dream
Shocked by the streets of Dalls, wounded at Kent State
Set adrift in the Gulf of Tonkin
No one braced us for "shadow men" without their arms and legs
No one showed us how to celebrate a war we hadn't won
No one told us the taint of Agent Orange would seep to the unborn
No one warned us about the empty "Welcome Home"

The hard lessons of that war are etche din our hearts
Just as deeply as your names are engraved on this Wall
For we know that but for the hand of God
Our names would be here with yours