While the subtitle of this collection of poetry is The Vietnam War Poetry of Charles E. Patterson, and while it is true that the settings and details in the poems do apply to that particular conflict, there is much that is at the same time profoundly universal in these works. Patterson's poems are about civilians and combatants, young girls and soldiers, old men and children, friend and foe; they are about fighting and dying, about warrior anguish and regret, about pride and fear and compassion, about leaving for war, and about coming home and trying to live. They include subjects and themes applicable to every war.

And, too, these poems are universal in that they embrace at once the mundane and spiritual, inextricably linked. This is never so obvious as in the poem "Bootlaces":

Forty-eight inches of cotton, black,
Ends neatly matched and ready
To writhe through holes and twist...
They weld my boot and sole...
How quickly we would beautify,
Even canonize, that Lance Corporal in Supply
Who'd issue laces long enough and strong enough
To wrap around this body
And weld it to my soul
To keep it warm and safe as feet.

This is the kind of poetry only a warrior would, or perhaps even could, write. These are skillful, subtly serious lines, inspired by the sufferings of war, composing an extraordinary paean to the ordinary bootlaces of an infantry man - only one of many such poems in this fine collection.

Author: Charles E. Patterson
Hardcover: 110 pages