WATERMARK

a poet’s notebook

Established 02004

Vietnam

August 21, 2007

War | this is not a poem

To be 17, or 18, 19 or 20; filled with certainties, as we all are at that age. To be given a rifle ("This is my weapon; this is my gun!" the soldiers sang as they marched. "This is for killing; this is for fun!") What do they sing now, with women in their ranks?… Continue reading

Current Affairs, Politics

Iraq, Vietnam, war

Ancestral (Artificial )Intelligence

I do not use AI to write. For me, writing is how I think, and I prefer to do it myself. If/when I post anything here that I suspect or know to be AI generated, I will tell you.

I have changed this from Artificial to Ancestral, after Abi Awomosu @ Substack. This medium was made with human history, human thought. All of it, bright and dark. It is ancestral.

Poems

Please do not assume that I am the speaker/ subject of my poems.

In these times of creative nonfiction and fictionalized memoirs, I think of the poem itself as true fiction: it is most likely not factual, but it must be true.

It is likely to be — it is best if it is — a truth I did not know before I wrote, and may not understand even then.

A poem is my way of discovering (dis-covering) what I feel; sometimes, what I think — but it is not necessarily biographical.

Vietnam

War | this is not a poem