After the Storm: Poems on the Persian Gulf War

by F.D. Reeve (Editor)

Book by

121 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1992

About the author

Franklin D'Olier "F.D." Reeve was an American academic, writer, poet, Russian translator, and editor. He was also the father of actor Christopher Reeve. He started his academic career teaching Russian language and literature at Columbia University before moving to Wesleyan University as chairman of the Russian Department.

Reeve was an officer of the Poetry Society of America, the founding editor of "Poetry Review," the secretary of Poets House in its formative years, and was associated with the New England Poetry Club and the New York Quarterly. He published over two dozen books of poetry, fiction, criticism, and translation.

Reviews

[William Kirkland · Rating 3 out of 5]

A 1992 selection of brief poems about war by some 66 published poets, names such as Robert Bly and Philip Levine, Denise Levertov and Maura Stanton. Some of the poems were written in response to the Gulf War of Aug, 1990 - Feb, 1991, but many were not. All, as the editors tell us, push back against the language of war euphemisms, poems 'that will not tell lies.'

As is my custom, I kept the book on a chair near the door and sat to read and think about one poem each day before I entered the hurly-burly outside. Somedays I went out reflective, others mournful, others with the prick of anger. This has been a good practice for me and this a good book for any to have, and from which to read -- reminding us of wars, and the loss they bring, which we too soon forget.