What do you think?
Rate this book
Song of Napalm: Poems
“Song of Napalm is more than a collection of beautifully wrought, heartwrenching, and often very funny poems. It’s a narrative, the story of an American innocent’s descent into hell and his excruciating return to life on the surface. Weigl may have written the best novel so far about the Vietnam War, and along the way a dozen truly memorable poems.” — Russell Banks
70 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
2 people are currently reading
94 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
August 5, 2017
The internet swells with things you can't unsee. Images of murder, gore, torture, rape and cruelty (real or staged) lurk in the legion electronic corners.
A few years back I spent an hour exploring a forum thread devoted to this topic. The site is reputable, so the links came fitted with warnings and nothing potentially illegal was allowed. That still left room for scenes from z-grade horror films and the creepiest nature footage you can imagine (one link I didn't click promised a centipede eating a mouse.) This experience confirmed that this sort of thing isn't for me; it sated my curiosity and left me disturbed but nightmare-free.
The poems in Song of Napalm describe a different reality; where you can't look away from live horrors and can't turn your mind from their memories. Bruce Weigl served in Vietnam and suffered shocks that time and artistic release cannot fix. Most of these poems don't deal with battle or bloodshed, but they scar all the same. Images include an old woman with 'beetle-black teeth' slammed to the ground by the butt of a soldier's rifle, a can of food whipped at the head of a thankful child and a pair of dogs gruesomely stuck together as their owners argue fault while beating the other man's dog.
Over everything hangs Weigl's sense of helplessness. He writes 'I have no excuse for myself' as he stands inert watching the old woman beaten. And during an aborted turn with a prostitute he found himself 'Drunk, I couldn't do anything, angry I threw the mattress to the street.'
And this helplessness follows Weigl into his civilian life. Song of Napalm's titular poem describes Weigl and his wife watching as 'horses walk off lazily across the pasture's hill' following a rainstorm; a serene scene to most eyes. Yet for Weigl the nearby trees morph into barbed wire and the distant thunder becomes the boom of incendiary blasts. No backdrop is so innocuous that it can't trigger memories that refuse to be forgotten.
The freedom to ingest horrors at leisure, to look away and forget is one I take for granted. Yet this stands as one of the most important rights we can possess; the right to feel safe within our own minds.
Edited 8-5-2017
A few years back I spent an hour exploring a forum thread devoted to this topic. The site is reputable, so the links came fitted with warnings and nothing potentially illegal was allowed. That still left room for scenes from z-grade horror films and the creepiest nature footage you can imagine (one link I didn't click promised a centipede eating a mouse.) This experience confirmed that this sort of thing isn't for me; it sated my curiosity and left me disturbed but nightmare-free.
The poems in Song of Napalm describe a different reality; where you can't look away from live horrors and can't turn your mind from their memories. Bruce Weigl served in Vietnam and suffered shocks that time and artistic release cannot fix. Most of these poems don't deal with battle or bloodshed, but they scar all the same. Images include an old woman with 'beetle-black teeth' slammed to the ground by the butt of a soldier's rifle, a can of food whipped at the head of a thankful child and a pair of dogs gruesomely stuck together as their owners argue fault while beating the other man's dog.
Over everything hangs Weigl's sense of helplessness. He writes 'I have no excuse for myself' as he stands inert watching the old woman beaten. And during an aborted turn with a prostitute he found himself 'Drunk, I couldn't do anything, angry I threw the mattress to the street.'
And this helplessness follows Weigl into his civilian life. Song of Napalm's titular poem describes Weigl and his wife watching as 'horses walk off lazily across the pasture's hill' following a rainstorm; a serene scene to most eyes. Yet for Weigl the nearby trees morph into barbed wire and the distant thunder becomes the boom of incendiary blasts. No backdrop is so innocuous that it can't trigger memories that refuse to be forgotten.
The freedom to ingest horrors at leisure, to look away and forget is one I take for granted. Yet this stands as one of the most important rights we can possess; the right to feel safe within our own minds.
Edited 8-5-2017
May 2, 2016
Bruce Weigl’s Song of Napalm is another collection of poems dealing with the impact of the Vietnam War. Robert Stone says in the introduction, “Bruce Weigl’s poetry is a refusal to forget. It is an angry assertion of the youth and life that was spent in Vietnam with such vast prodigality, as though youth and life were infinite. Through his honesty and toughmindedness, he undertakes the traditional duty of the poet: in the face of randomness and terror to subject things themselves to the power of art and thus bring them within the compass of moral comprehension.”
Weigl takes readers on a journey to Vietnam in the late 1960s and explores the anxiety he feels as a soldier in a strange nation. Each poem’s narrator carefully observes his surroundings, detailing the corner laundry, the hotel, the jungle, and his fellow soldiers.
“Who would’ve thought the world stops
turning in the war, the tropical heat like hate
and your platoon moves out without you,
your wet clothes piled
at the feet of the girl at the laundry,
beautiful with her facts.” (from “Girl at the Chu Lai Laundry,” page 4)
To read more of this review, go to: http://savvyverseandwit.com/2010/04/s...
Weigl takes readers on a journey to Vietnam in the late 1960s and explores the anxiety he feels as a soldier in a strange nation. Each poem’s narrator carefully observes his surroundings, detailing the corner laundry, the hotel, the jungle, and his fellow soldiers.
“Who would’ve thought the world stops
turning in the war, the tropical heat like hate
and your platoon moves out without you,
your wet clothes piled
at the feet of the girl at the laundry,
beautiful with her facts.” (from “Girl at the Chu Lai Laundry,” page 4)
To read more of this review, go to: http://savvyverseandwit.com/2010/04/s...
April 3, 2018
p.67 There are questions which/ people who have everything/ ask people who have nothing/ and they do not understand.
A collection of poems which highlights the horrors of war. Dark themes imbue the poems; cruelty and inhumanity take center stage.
The wide variety of poetic forms is one highpoint of the work. "Hand to Hand" is a prose poem, and not the only prose poem in the collection, while "Monkey" includes a scat rhythm and a collection of images and sing-song word combinations.
Multiple poems in the work are worth reading again and again. The title poem of the collection is strong and emotional vision. The young girl running down the road engulfed in flame is a famous Vietnam photograph; the photo is the foundation of the poem. "Snowy Egret" is another highlight within the collection for this reader. Weaving a masterful scene, bound with threads of alliteration, into a vision which will stay with you. "Burning Shit at An Khe" plays with the metaphor throughout the piece, comparing the waste burning to the war and the personal situation of the poet.
A collection of poems which highlights the horrors of war. Dark themes imbue the poems; cruelty and inhumanity take center stage.
The wide variety of poetic forms is one highpoint of the work. "Hand to Hand" is a prose poem, and not the only prose poem in the collection, while "Monkey" includes a scat rhythm and a collection of images and sing-song word combinations.
Multiple poems in the work are worth reading again and again. The title poem of the collection is strong and emotional vision. The young girl running down the road engulfed in flame is a famous Vietnam photograph; the photo is the foundation of the poem. "Snowy Egret" is another highlight within the collection for this reader. Weaving a masterful scene, bound with threads of alliteration, into a vision which will stay with you. "Burning Shit at An Khe" plays with the metaphor throughout the piece, comparing the waste burning to the war and the personal situation of the poet.
March 14, 2021
Amazing. I read 2 poetry books in a row and look forward to reading others soon (once I finish my homework and my Hitler graphic novel).
Really, I shouldn’t’ve read the book. Reading required texts, I sat on my chair to exchange the reading just finished for the reading to come. I saw this book atop the pile on my end table, purchased as it came up in my class about reading nonfiction and my research to find nonfiction poetry for my students to read. I picked it up thinking “I’ll just read a poem or two,” I’d only read the introduction yesterday. One or 2 poems became 10 pages which turned into that section, then half the book, the end of that section, to might as well finish it now. By then, I’d so marked up the book, if I ever wanted someone else to read it I’d have to buy another. I poured over so many of the poems reading and rereading them. I’d become Weigl’s disciple. I want to quit my job, join the program where he teaches. Sometimes it’s a good thing I have obligations outside myself.
War poetry fascinates me. What an odd juxtaposition to have such beauty come from something so grotesque. I wondered why I haven’t read Weigl before? I’ve taken history classes, one specifically about the Vietnam War. Authors like Tim O’Brien stand as my favorite. Yet, his poem “Song of Napalm” seemed so familiar. Was it familiar because of the imagery that came immediately to mind. I consulted my New Oxford Book of War Poetry (I get why you have it categorized by author, but really, it should be categorized by which war is the subject) and found I had read the poem before. Why does it stick in my head more now than before?
Really, I shouldn’t’ve read the book. Reading required texts, I sat on my chair to exchange the reading just finished for the reading to come. I saw this book atop the pile on my end table, purchased as it came up in my class about reading nonfiction and my research to find nonfiction poetry for my students to read. I picked it up thinking “I’ll just read a poem or two,” I’d only read the introduction yesterday. One or 2 poems became 10 pages which turned into that section, then half the book, the end of that section, to might as well finish it now. By then, I’d so marked up the book, if I ever wanted someone else to read it I’d have to buy another. I poured over so many of the poems reading and rereading them. I’d become Weigl’s disciple. I want to quit my job, join the program where he teaches. Sometimes it’s a good thing I have obligations outside myself.
War poetry fascinates me. What an odd juxtaposition to have such beauty come from something so grotesque. I wondered why I haven’t read Weigl before? I’ve taken history classes, one specifically about the Vietnam War. Authors like Tim O’Brien stand as my favorite. Yet, his poem “Song of Napalm” seemed so familiar. Was it familiar because of the imagery that came immediately to mind. I consulted my New Oxford Book of War Poetry (I get why you have it categorized by author, but really, it should be categorized by which war is the subject) and found I had read the poem before. Why does it stick in my head more now than before?
July 11, 2021
I started collecting volumes of poetry on the theme of war and combat and especially collections written by veterans of combat. Such "war poetry" is especially associated with the First World War and its poets of England, France, Germany, America, and others.
Much of this poetry before the First World War was focused upon the heroism of combatants and the glory of victory (or of bravery and endurance in defeat). This begins to dramatically change during the First World War as the tragedy and futility of what they saw and experienced led many poets to present a darker vision. By the time of the U.S. war in Vietnam, this darker vision predominated and this is what is presented here by Bruce Weigl, a veteran of the 1st Air Cavalry Division in Vietnam (for which see "We Were Soldiers Once, and Young."
The poetry of Bruce Weigl in "Song of Napalm" includes many darker images reflecting his experiences in Vietnam. His words describe both seemingly ordinary moments of human life - love, sex, drinking, etc - but always against the background of the tragedy of the war in Vietnam. This background is especially strong in the darker images he presents of men in combat, in conflict, and in death.
I would recommend this collection to anyone interested, as I am, in the revelations of how combat effects soldiers, of how soldiers reflect upon their experiences, and how they choose to present that experience to others (or especially to themselves) while attempting to process and understand their experience of war.
Much of this poetry before the First World War was focused upon the heroism of combatants and the glory of victory (or of bravery and endurance in defeat). This begins to dramatically change during the First World War as the tragedy and futility of what they saw and experienced led many poets to present a darker vision. By the time of the U.S. war in Vietnam, this darker vision predominated and this is what is presented here by Bruce Weigl, a veteran of the 1st Air Cavalry Division in Vietnam (for which see "We Were Soldiers Once, and Young."
The poetry of Bruce Weigl in "Song of Napalm" includes many darker images reflecting his experiences in Vietnam. His words describe both seemingly ordinary moments of human life - love, sex, drinking, etc - but always against the background of the tragedy of the war in Vietnam. This background is especially strong in the darker images he presents of men in combat, in conflict, and in death.
I would recommend this collection to anyone interested, as I am, in the revelations of how combat effects soldiers, of how soldiers reflect upon their experiences, and how they choose to present that experience to others (or especially to themselves) while attempting to process and understand their experience of war.
July 24, 2020
ELEGY
Into sunlight they marched,
into dog day, into no saints day,
and were cut down.
They marched without knowing
how the air would be sucked from their lungs,
how their lungs would collapse,
how the world would twist itself, would
bend into the cruel angles.
Into the black understanding they marched
until the angels came
calling their names,
until they rose, one by one from the blood.
The light blasted down on them.
The bullets sliced through the razor grass
so there was not even time to speak.
The words would not let themselves be spoken.
Some of them died.
Some of them were not allowed to.
Into sunlight they marched,
into dog day, into no saints day,
and were cut down.
They marched without knowing
how the air would be sucked from their lungs,
how their lungs would collapse,
how the world would twist itself, would
bend into the cruel angles.
Into the black understanding they marched
until the angels came
calling their names,
until they rose, one by one from the blood.
The light blasted down on them.
The bullets sliced through the razor grass
so there was not even time to speak.
The words would not let themselves be spoken.
Some of them died.
Some of them were not allowed to.
February 18, 2022
Very powerful
I don't often read poetry but I heard about Bruce Weigl and decided to have a look. I'm a veteran and have had my share of war, and I have to say that this book took me right back. At times it reduced me to tears - Anna Grasa had me sobbing my heart out as I remembered my own late Granny being there to welcome me home in 1982 after the Falklands. The Kiss - well, that was my Dad seeing me off to war, just without the aeroplane. He died a week ago, but I always remember how he hugged me and kissed me before he let his son go to war. If you've been there, you will get this poetry. If you've never been there, you will never truly understand this poetry.
I don't often read poetry but I heard about Bruce Weigl and decided to have a look. I'm a veteran and have had my share of war, and I have to say that this book took me right back. At times it reduced me to tears - Anna Grasa had me sobbing my heart out as I remembered my own late Granny being there to welcome me home in 1982 after the Falklands. The Kiss - well, that was my Dad seeing me off to war, just without the aeroplane. He died a week ago, but I always remember how he hugged me and kissed me before he let his son go to war. If you've been there, you will get this poetry. If you've never been there, you will never truly understand this poetry.
September 2, 2018
These poems brought back a lot of memories, about me and about lost friends that I hadn't thought of in decades. That's enough to say.
I vacillated between 3 and 4 stars.
I vacillated between 3 and 4 stars.
March 20, 2024
I pul it out and read it from time to time. “Some died, some were not allowed to “.
January 2, 2008
This is one of the first books of poetry I read on my own, that I found on my own and pulled from the shelf on a whim. It's a book of poems about the Vietnam War, and take place during the war and during the rehabilitation time afterwards. What I first loved about this book is it's unpoeticness, at least as I saw what "poetics" meant when I was 15 years old. It is raw and unapologetic, but at the same time willing to look past some anger directed at both sides and re-humanize the combatants and victims. As an older reader now, I can understand the brutal poetics of this book, the bravery of the text and the beauty that can be found in even the most horrific of moments and memories.
May 20, 2016
I don't usually like free-form poetry very much, but occasionally I am swayed by certain poems whether I want to be or not. I liked this collection, most of them somehow relating to the experience during the Vietnam War, where the poet served in the late 1960s in the U.S> Army. Many of the poem have less to do with combat and more to do with experiences in the towns, with prostitutes, bar girls, and drugs. Oddly, there seems to be a fondness for this world, it seems to me, eb]ven if there is sadness and pain.
February 1, 2012
Read for my Vietnam Travel Seminar. The poems in this collection depict both life for a soldier in Vietnam (fear of mines, some of the horrible things seen/done, some regular things) and the narrator's attempts to reintegrate into society after he gets home.
Each poem hits you like a bullet. It's a short book. You should read it.
Each poem hits you like a bullet. It's a short book. You should read it.
December 2, 2012
The title jumped out at me while browsing at 1/2 price books one day. Thin little book of poems mostly about the author's personal journey while fighting in Vietnam. There are several poems in here that i really like a lot. If the voice feels authentic, then I usually find something that I can appreciate, if not happily absorb.
March 9, 2013
Having recently read A Rumor of War, all the imagery of the war in the poetry complimented perfectly to the descriptions of what American soldiers were experiencing in the war. The poems dealt with the savagery and the debauchery and the fear of the war. They were interesting, but poetry is just not my genre.
http://thisismybookblog.blogspot.com/...
http://thisismybookblog.blogspot.com/...
January 21, 2017
Very moving book of poems by a very talented man. I had to put it down on numerous occasions because of how powerful it was, taking me right into my own war experiences, and ultimately I couldn't help but be moved to tears. Anyone interested in knowing more about a war veteran's experience and the impact its had should read this.
October 21, 2008
So powerful...brilliant.
June 15, 2009
Haunting poems from a man who survived a war, but like anyone who has been in combat, left part of his soul behind.
January 4, 2020
Excellent poems by a Vietnam vet. Not as gut punching as Bill Shields, but more mature, more "poetic," if you will. Good stuff...
Read
January 7, 2013811.54 W4197s 1988
August 19, 2015
Incredibly powerful. A gift, a joy.
June 11, 2018
*This review also appears on my website*
I'm comfortable telling you that I've never quite gotten into poetry. Which isn't to say that I don't enjoy it, but I don't crave it like some do. I envy the type - you know who I'm talking about - clutching a slim collection of poetry like it's a brick of gold, nose buried in the folds, and the look of bliss. They're always pausing to put the book down, and stare, glassy-eyes, off into the distance, at some fleeting memory of the Elysium they've just witnessed in a handful of pretty words. As a writer, I'm not supposed to say things like this. In fact, I should be able to serve up flaming hot lines of poetry a propos to any situation. The more obscure, the better. Unfortunately, I am the troglodytic writer who ums and ahs his way through interviews and is thoroughly unprepared to dish literary, let alone poetical, references at a moment's notice. Only just now have I realized that it is National Poetry Month. I know, I know...I'm hopeless. By way of apology, however, I will recommend Bruce Weigl's terrifyingly-named poetry collection, Song of Napalm, which could be considered a kind of memoir in verse. I've written about other Vietnam veteran memoirs, to include Tim O'Brien's and Tobias Wolff's (which reminds me that I still need to cover Phil Caputo.) And of course, there's always Michael Herr to consider. But this was the first bit of Vietnam poetry I'd read in quite some time, maybe even since the Academy. I had this epiphany during one of my MFA Residencies when I attended a poetry workshop, when I realized how much of what poetry exhibits translates to prose. Linguistic economy. Visual form and structure. Tight narrative. It was like someone smacked me upside the head, which is embarrassing to admit. For crying out loud, it took someone pointing out to me that my short essay "When We Played" was a prose poem under the right light. Like I said, I'm not that bright. Song of Napalm had much to teach me about writing short pieces, which is where I think there is a direct craft lesson for prose writers looking for poetic inspiration. To wit: if you want to write flash nonfiction, you'd be smart to spend some time reading narrative poetry. Count the number of words, if you really want to be impressed. Hell, even if you're not inspired to bash your head against Brevity's 750-word limit, you would do well to study poetry's refusal to let a single word go to waste. Aspire to a collection of linked essays? How about a collection of linked poems? Weigl's collection is devastating. It's all there: the strange country we find ourselves inhabiting, the violence, and the difficult return. The wounds, unseen, that never heal. The knowledge that we have been forever changed. Song of Napalm nails it all, and it's the type of collection that will rip your heart out. Repeatedly. And it's that last bit that makes me think about emotion in memoir, or at least the way a memoirist chooses to convey their narrator. Weigl talks about some things in his poetry that are uncomfortable -- things that polite society chooses to relegate to second-class narrative. I don't know if it's the fact that you get so little in the way of word count, but receive so much in the way of emotional impact, but Song of Napalm seemed the most personal and visceral piece of Vietnam writing - fiction or nonfiction - I encountered to date. So, perhaps the last thing the poetry collection has to say to memoir is, have the courage to write the uncomfortable things.
I'm comfortable telling you that I've never quite gotten into poetry. Which isn't to say that I don't enjoy it, but I don't crave it like some do. I envy the type - you know who I'm talking about - clutching a slim collection of poetry like it's a brick of gold, nose buried in the folds, and the look of bliss. They're always pausing to put the book down, and stare, glassy-eyes, off into the distance, at some fleeting memory of the Elysium they've just witnessed in a handful of pretty words. As a writer, I'm not supposed to say things like this. In fact, I should be able to serve up flaming hot lines of poetry a propos to any situation. The more obscure, the better. Unfortunately, I am the troglodytic writer who ums and ahs his way through interviews and is thoroughly unprepared to dish literary, let alone poetical, references at a moment's notice. Only just now have I realized that it is National Poetry Month. I know, I know...I'm hopeless. By way of apology, however, I will recommend Bruce Weigl's terrifyingly-named poetry collection, Song of Napalm, which could be considered a kind of memoir in verse. I've written about other Vietnam veteran memoirs, to include Tim O'Brien's and Tobias Wolff's (which reminds me that I still need to cover Phil Caputo.) And of course, there's always Michael Herr to consider. But this was the first bit of Vietnam poetry I'd read in quite some time, maybe even since the Academy. I had this epiphany during one of my MFA Residencies when I attended a poetry workshop, when I realized how much of what poetry exhibits translates to prose. Linguistic economy. Visual form and structure. Tight narrative. It was like someone smacked me upside the head, which is embarrassing to admit. For crying out loud, it took someone pointing out to me that my short essay "When We Played" was a prose poem under the right light. Like I said, I'm not that bright. Song of Napalm had much to teach me about writing short pieces, which is where I think there is a direct craft lesson for prose writers looking for poetic inspiration. To wit: if you want to write flash nonfiction, you'd be smart to spend some time reading narrative poetry. Count the number of words, if you really want to be impressed. Hell, even if you're not inspired to bash your head against Brevity's 750-word limit, you would do well to study poetry's refusal to let a single word go to waste. Aspire to a collection of linked essays? How about a collection of linked poems? Weigl's collection is devastating. It's all there: the strange country we find ourselves inhabiting, the violence, and the difficult return. The wounds, unseen, that never heal. The knowledge that we have been forever changed. Song of Napalm nails it all, and it's the type of collection that will rip your heart out. Repeatedly. And it's that last bit that makes me think about emotion in memoir, or at least the way a memoirist chooses to convey their narrator. Weigl talks about some things in his poetry that are uncomfortable -- things that polite society chooses to relegate to second-class narrative. I don't know if it's the fact that you get so little in the way of word count, but receive so much in the way of emotional impact, but Song of Napalm seemed the most personal and visceral piece of Vietnam writing - fiction or nonfiction - I encountered to date. So, perhaps the last thing the poetry collection has to say to memoir is, have the courage to write the uncomfortable things.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews