Full Moon Boat: Poems

by Fred Marchant

In 1970, during the war in Viet Nam, Marchant became one of the first Marine officers ever to be honorably discharged as a conscientious objector. In the poems contained in Full Moon Boat , Marchant explores the concept of What are its origins and consequences? What actions of the heart and mind resist it? Marchant takes us on a voyage from childhood to adult trauma, and eventually to a peace arrived at by unflinching meditation. A hard-won peace, it is our undiscovered country.

Genres: Poetry

82 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2000

About the author

Fred Marchant is a professor of English and the director of the creative writing program and the poetry center at Suffolk University in Boston. He graduated from Brown University and later earned a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He is a longtime teaching affiliate of the William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, as he was himself a conscientious objector within the military during the Vietnam War. He has taught workshops at various sites across the country, including The Frost Place (Franconia, NH), the Fine Arts Work Center (Provincetown, MA), and the Veterans Writing Group (Sebastopol, CA). In 2009 Marchant was co-winner (with Afaa Michael Weaver) of the May Sarton Award from the New England Poetry Club, given to poets whose “work is an inspiration to other poets.”

Reviews

[Andy Oram · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marchant writes in a variety of styles and rhetoric, so each poem is a surprise. He mixes mystery, memory, and social justice with just the right amount of emphasis. The book careens between detached philosophizing and the agonizing choices of people such as survivors of the Viet Nam wars.

[Serena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fred Marchant’s Full Moon Boat, published by Graywolf Press, is a poetry collection from my shelves that has been dipped into on many occasions. The collection not only contains original poems by Marchant, a Suffolk University professor, but also translations of Vietnamese poets. Many of these poems not only examine deep emotional turmoil through nature, but also the theme of war, particularly the Vietnam War.

“In 1970, Georgette, Harry’s war bride,
wrote to me on Okinawa, pleading that
I not leave the service as a conscientious
objector. She said Jesus could not approve,” (From “The Return,” page 3)

“From the steps of the pagoda where Thich Quang Duc
left to burn himself in Sai Gon, I took a photograph

which centered on a dragon boat
drifting on the Perfume River, framed by a full-leafed
banana tree. An image of mourning.
Another photograph: this one in front of the Marine insignia,

my right hand raised, joining. I am flanked
by my parents, their eyes odd and empty too.
It was 1968, and none of us knew what we were doing. (from “Thirty Obligatory Bows,” page 28)

Unlike other poetry collections with a focus on the Vietnam War, Marchant’s collection zeroes in on the deep emotional states of families sending their sons overseas to war, ranging from pride to shame and even confusion. In many ways the lines of these poems are deceiving in their simplicity, releasing their power only after the reader has read the lines aloud or for the second time. In “A Reading During Time of War,” readers may miss the turning point in the poem on the first read through, but sense that something has changed in the last lines, prompting another read and the realization that the realities of war will always rear their ugly heads.

Read more of my review here: http://savvyverseandwit.com/2010/04/f...

[Kameel Nasr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fred Marchant is an inspiring Boston-area poet and teacher who has been generous with his time to other poets. Here's an example of his writing:
when a warm, steady rain starts to weep
over tiara, and the bach and forth
lean of planting,
Then the northern lands will learn a river music,
and begin to flower.
I've read several of his books of poems, but I just had this on my desk now and thought I'd write an encouraging review.
Kameel Nasr, author of The Symphony Heist