{"title":"Bruce Weigl","description":"\u003cp\u003eBruce Weigl is the author of over twenty books of poetry, translations and essays, most recently, \u003cem\u003eApostle of Desire \u003c\/em\u003e(BOA, 2025), \u003cem\u003eAmong Elms, in Ambush \u003c\/em\u003e(BOA, 2021), \u003cem\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.boaeditions.org\/collections\/poetry\/products\/on-the-shores-of-welcome-home\" title=\"On the Shores of Welcome Home\"\u003eOn the Shores of Welcome Home\u003c\/a\u003e \u003c\/em\u003e(BOA, 2019), and \u003cem\u003eThe Abundance of Nothing\u003c\/em\u003e (Northwestern University Press, 2012), which was a finalist for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. He is the translator of \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNguyễn Phan Quế Mai's \u003cem\u003e\u003ca title=\"The Secret of Hoa Sen\" href=\"https:\/\/www.boaeditions.org\/collections\/translations\/products\/the-secret-of-hoa-sen\"\u003eThe Secret of Hoa Sen\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e (BOA, 2014). Hi\u003c\/span\u003es poetry, essays, articles, reviews and translations have appeared in \u003cem\u003eThe Nation\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Paris Review\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eHarvard Review\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eHarpers\u003c\/em\u003e, among a wide variety of magazines and journals. His poetry has been translated internationally into Romanian, Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, Bulgarian, Japanese, Korean and Serbian. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWeigl has won the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry, the Poets Prize from the Academy of American Poets, the Robert Creeley Award, The Cleveland Arts Prize, The Tu Do Chien Kien Award from the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and the 2018 \u003cspan\u003e“Premiul Tudor Arghezi Prize” from the National Museum of Literature of Romania. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHe has received fellowships from \u003c\/span\u003eBreadloaf, Yaddo and the National Endowment for the Arts. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHaving fought in the American War in Vietnam (Quang Tri, 1967-1968), Bruce Weigl has been working to promote mutual understanding and reconciliation between Vietnam and the US via literature and cultural exchanges for over twenty years. He is the co-translator of four Vietnamese-English poetry collections and has received a Medal for Significant Contributions from the Vietnam Union of Literature and Arts Associations and the Vietnam Writers Association, who acknowledge his efforts and success in the promotion of Vietnamese literature to the world. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe lives in Oberlin, Ohio, and in \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eHà Nội, \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eViệt Nam.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"the-secret-of-hoa-sen","title":"The Secret of Hoa Sen","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"display: none;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"display: none;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"display: none;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"display: none;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNguyễn Phan Quế Mai is among the most exciting writers to emerge from post-war Vietnam. Bruce Weigl, driven by his personal experiences as a soldier during the war in Vietnam, has spent the past 20 years translating contemporary Vietnamese poetry. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThese penetrating poems, published in bilingual English and Vietnamese, build new bridges between two cultures bound together by war and destruction. \u003cem\u003eThe Secret of Hoa Sen\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eQuế Mai’s first full-length U.S. publication, shines with craft, art, and deeply felt humanity.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“\u003c\/span\u003eEarth Home\u003cspan\u003e”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eThe roads bleed out their green blood until they’re pale.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eSummer buries the sound of the cicada;\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ewinter entombs the leaves.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eI am bare on the concrete pavement—the cemetery of grass—\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eand sadness finds nowhere to hang.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eConcrete, towering steel,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003edust, thickening smoke.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eIn one gulp noise swallows the sun.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eI put my hands to my face; I cannot recognize myself.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eRivers flow from forests which have died too young,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eblood halos of red clouds;\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ehumankind drowns itself with floods\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003erushing down bare mountains\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ewhere once proud trees\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003ecling with their roots, crying out their fate.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWhere young rice plants were green,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003efactory chimneys poke into the ribs of light.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eA cancer descends, grows, and spreads from human greed.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"\u003eWhere can I hide, when I am chasing myself?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePraise for The \u003ci\u003eSecret of Hoa Sen\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“In this once-vital place, where red gạo blossoms rim bomb craters, there is an undeniable destruction to be discovered, to be acknowledged between generations. \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNguyễn Phan Quế Mai\u003c\/span\u003e explores this history of violence with great sensitivity in \u003ci\u003eThe Secret of Hoa Sen\u003c\/i\u003e, a collection of 52 poems that affirms her place as one of Vietnam’s foremost contemporary poets.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNguyễn's\u003c\/span\u003e poetic attention is diverse and wide in scope, but never far from her country and family... Reading this collection by \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNguyễn\u003c\/span\u003e, one cannot help but feel that each poem is written into the Vietnamese landscape of the poet’s imagination. Not carved, but delicately inscribed; so as to preserve the beauty of a country whose wounds must not define it.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePoetry International\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eQuế Mai\u003c\/span\u003e, a translator, poet, and winner of the Poetry of the Year Award from the Hanoi Writers Association, collaborated with poet and translator Weigl for this collection focused on the lingering physical and psychological effects of the Vietnam War. These straightforward, personal poems lament and celebrate with the landscape—the smells, colors, and people of her country—that is their touchstone . . . Mai writes with a nostalgic yet detail-oriented eye.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Born in 1973 in Vietnam’s north but raised in the south’s lush delta, award-winning poet \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNguyễn\u003c\/span\u003e writes precise, vibrant poems that give voice to her country’s present, grounded in tradition and dark history. Guavas and mangos sometimes blossom here, but \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNguyễn\u003c\/span\u003e is just as inclined to speak without overwhelming polemic of the ‘collapsed royal dynasties’ of Vietnam and ‘the blood of its division bitter in our mouths.’ One poem, dedicated to BW—presumably poet\/translator Weigl, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and Vietnam veteran—states bluntly, ‘He can’t explain the reasons for the war.’ Important, especially to those still contemplating that question.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Vietnamese poet \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNguyễn Phan Quế Mai\u003c\/span\u003e’s first collection in English, \u003ci\u003eThe Secret of Hoa Sen\u003c\/i\u003e, translated by the poet and Vietnam War veteran Bruce Weigl, tells a woman’s story of her homeland—a place of immense beauty and generational trauma . . . This poet, in her earthy tenderness and vivid imagery, conveys the experience of women who work the earth with their hands, and who know the deep emotional suffering of war: pregnant women who survive bombings, or women who call out for their dead children or husbands. Through the rendering of these lyrical narratives and through a careful reconstruction of her own lineage, \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNguyễn Phan Quế Mai\u003c\/span\u003e creates a portrait of woman that is both fractured and resilient. Perhaps through her unrelenting lullabies she finally sings the ancestors to sleep.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePoetry\u003c\/i\u003e Magazine\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“The Secret of Hoa Sen is centered on the sad stories of women in the central Vietnamese province of Quang Tri—which is considered the ‘pocket’ of explosive remnants left over from the U.S. war in Vietnam—who lost their husbands and children. [The Secret of Hoa Sen] also honors the bravery and resilience of Vietnamese people who fought for peace as well as rebuilt the country after the war.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eTuoi Tre News\u003c\/i\u003e (Vietnam)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Like a lullaby, \u003ci\u003eThe Secret of Hoa Sen\u003c\/i\u003e acknowledges our collective pain by looking at it head on. \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNguyễn\u003c\/span\u003e does not sooth over old wounds, but she does break down the painfulness of the past by suggesting the journey back can offer a chance at redemption.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePleiades \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“The author writes eloquently about family, femaleness and the sensual beauty of her country. When she writes of place, I feel that I am walking past the rice shoots in a long ago world.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Omaha World-Herald\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“Poetry is an effective and beautiful way to deal with the horrific aspects of war that have marked all of us. Those who have been avoiding Vietnam War poetry should try this book. You might find it surprisingly affecting.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—David Willson, \u003ci\u003eVietnam Veterans of America\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“The collection thus is successful in conveying to readers a timeline of Vietnam’s historical struggles, making the poems function as fine memorials. Ms. \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNguyễn\u003c\/span\u003e voice is simple, but full of compassion, and there is both the quality of the earth and the wind in her poetry, an embracing lushness.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Asymptote Journal\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch6\u003ePublication Date: November 17, 2014\u003cbr\u003eISBN:\u003cstrong\u003e 978-1-938160-52-3\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/h6\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e© BOA Editions, Ltd. 2014\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"display: none;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"display: none;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"display: none;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"display: none;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan style=\"display: none;\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOA Editions, Ltd.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":8420366917,"sku":"9781938160523","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/products\/9781938160530_FC.jpg?v=1608054475"},{"product_id":"on-the-shores-of-welcome-home","title":"On the Shores of Welcome Home","description":"\u003ch4\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWinner of the Isabella Gardner Award\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn this Isabella Gardner Award-winning collection of poems, Bruce Weigl meditates on the ghosts and the grace one encounters in life’s second act. A celebrated poet and veteran of the Vietnam War, Weigl offers a nuanced sense of aging as a departure and death as a returning home. With a sage’s eye for mindfulness and a soldier’s longing for the country where he served, Weigl’s poems reveal the long scars left by Vietnam and the new possibilities one encounters in the wake of life-altering experiences.   \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003eFrom \"The Hà Nội Winds Bringing Winter to the Old-World Elegy\"\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe soon to be bare winter branches\u003cbr\u003edon’t exactly tremble—that’s a human thing—\u003cbr\u003ebut they move in the wind of my waiting\u003cbr\u003ein what looks like the shiver that love brings\u003cbr\u003eto your neurons, right down to the cells\u003cbr\u003ewho are happy for some company, after all.\u003cbr\u003eI could sit out here all day and watch the world\u003cbr\u003eleave us behind, and not have a single regret\u003cbr\u003eexcept for not living even harder and faster\u003cbr\u003ethan I did, giving up to immutable green space\u003cbr\u003emy body, and then later, my soul down by the river\u003cbr\u003ewhose name I may not utter, please\u003cbr\u003edon’t make me tell you what happened there, the bare\u003cbr\u003ebranches are enough in their trembling like a shiver\u003cbr\u003eto say all that needs to be said. The room I’m in\u003cbr\u003eis getting smaller, with every faded moment’s life,\u003cbr\u003eand we know what that means. Your heart may beat\u003cbr\u003ein time with the umbrella’s flapping in patio wind,\u003cbr\u003ebut it doesn’t mean you belong anywhere;\u003cbr\u003eit doesn’t mean you’re connected to anything that could save you\u003cbr\u003eor pull you back into the flock of care we imagine. No.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003ePraise for Bruce Weigl\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Weigl’s personal reckoning with trauma is juxtaposed against the title poem’s polemic against war, a lengthy plea for empathy and tolerance that establishes war, police brutality, mass shootings, and anti-immigrant sentiments as intricately connected through a web of violence Americans have been taught to accept as necessary.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“All of Bruce Weigl's poems are of high quality and all should be purchased for any collection of literature dealing with the Vietnam War.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe VVA Veteran\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Bruce Weigl’s \u003ci\u003eOn the Shores of Welcome Home\u003c\/i\u003e deals with life and death matters, embracing earthy questions but always sighting a bead of true light. The mind and flesh of the soldier, of the survivor, of the seeker is laid bare as brotherly love. Weigl is always in at least two worlds at once—present and past; here and beyond. He poses questions of motion and emotion without easy Western answers. In fact, there’s nothing in this map of naked truths that’s easy. And, at times, this speaker of lyric reckoning holds himself accountable for the moments he said ‘I dare you.’ That is, \u003ci\u003eOn the Shores of Welcome Home\u003c\/i\u003e underscores how we are indeed connected—responsible for and to each other. This collection pinpoints days and nights of everyday life under fire, with penetrating grace notes.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e —Yusef Komunyakaa, author of \u003ci\u003eNeon Vernacular: New and Selected Poems\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Few poets of any generation have written so searingly of the trauma of war, inscribing its wound while refusing the fragile suture of redemption. In this and in the breadth of his accomplishment, Bruce Weigl is one of the most important poets of our time.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Carolyn Forché, author of \u003cem\u003eWhat You Have Heard is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“‘I don't think it's my place to breathe, Mr. Night,’ writes Bruce Weigl, while giving us a sweeping, beautiful collection of poems that breathes deeply as it takes us from Ha Noi to Ohio via elegies and lyrics that are urgent and unsparing in their clarity. In this time of crisis, even in his own uncertainties (‘a sky in my head tonight...I don’t know what it wants’), Weigl always finds the lyric pulse, a flame of our moment.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Ilya Kaminsky, author of \u003cem\u003eDeaf Republic\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Bruce Weigl’s unique verbal music is a song indivisible from its experiential roots. Events of childhood in the industrial Midwest, of young manhood flung unwitting into another land and culture, of the years of ongoing pain, of rare joy, of striving and illumination, are one fabric, no episodic.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e—Denise Levertov\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch6\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/h6\u003e\n\u003ch6\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e© BOA Editions, Ltd. 2019\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h6\u003e","brand":"BOA Editions, Ltd.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":22782323490897,"sku":"9781942683896","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/products\/OnTheShores_FC-WEB.jpg?v=1556109138"},{"product_id":"among-elms-in-ambush","title":"Among Elms, in Ambush","description":"\u003ch4\u003eThis powerful new work by Bruce Weigl follows the celebrated poet and Vietnam War veteran as he explores combat, survival, and PTSD in brief prose vignettes.\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn compact, transcendent, and poetic prose, Bruce Weigl chronicles somber observations on the present day alongside painful memories of the war. Reflections on school shootings and the lightning-fast spread of news in the 21st century are set alongside elegies for forgotten soldiers and the lifelong struggle of waiting for the trauma of war to fade.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHaunting and nuanced, \u003ci\u003eAmong Elms, in Ambush\u003c\/i\u003e carries readers through meditations and medications, past the shapes of figures in the dark rice fields of Viet Nam and the milkweed pods in the frost-covered fields of Ohio, toward a hard-won determination to survive.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePraise for Bruce Weigl\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Few books transfix me. This book did. \u003ci\u003eAmong Elms, in Ambush\u003c\/i\u003e is a ghostly, mysterious, sometimes angry, mostly loving, and always masterly work of art, poetry mapped by prose, prose elevated by a poet's ear for the music of articulation. Bruce Weigl's accomplishment, if it can be described at all, struck me with the force of a prolonged and vivid dream, one moment terrifying, the next moment celebrative or indignant or regretful. The book is infused with history—Weigl’s own, America's own—yet there is nothing merely topical in these pages, unless Dante's dizzying, breathtaking \u003ci\u003eInferno\u003c\/i\u003e can be read as topical.” \u003cb\u003e—Tim O’Brien, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Things They Carried\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Weigl is always in at least two worlds at once—present and past; here and beyond. He poses questions of motion and emotion without easy Western answers. In fact, there’s nothing in this map of naked truths that’s easy. And, at times, this speaker of lyric reckoning holds himself accountable for the moments he said ‘I dare you.’” \u003cb\u003e—Yusef Komunyakaa, author of \u003ci\u003eNeon Vernacular\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Few poets of any generation have written so searingly of the trauma of war, inscribing its wound while refusing the fragile suture of redemption. In this and in the breadth of his accomplishment, Bruce Weigl is one of the most important poets of our time.” \u003cb\u003e—Carolyn Forché, author of \u003ci\u003eWhat You Have Heard is True\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Weigl always finds the lyric pulse, a flame of our moment.” \u003cb\u003e—Ilya Kaminsky, author of \u003ci\u003eDeaf Republic\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOA Editions, Ltd.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":39658303946923,"sku":"","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/products\/AmongElmsInAmbush_MR1_CVR_RGB_SM.jpg?v=1624372857"},{"product_id":"apostle-of-desire","title":"Apostle of Desire","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePulitzer Prize finalist and one of America’s most revered military veteran writers, Bruce Weigl brings readers face-to-face with our country’s legacy of violence, the suffering of combat PTSD, and what it means to be truly haunted.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTaking its cue from James Wright’s goal to write, “the poetry of a grown man,” the poems in \u003cem\u003eApostle of Desire\u003c\/em\u003e juxtapose the peace and comfort offered by the natural world with the bruising intensity of manmade violence. These sudden tonal shifts express a vulnerability and extremity of feeling that strips audiences’ own emotions bare, leading readers to question their roles as bystanders and consumers of violent media.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn sharing his intertwining feelings of love and shame for both country and self, Weigl places readers into the role of the watcher and opens a window into the traumas of the Vietnam War and life’s daily battles with PTSD. The honesty of Weigl’s poetry exposes the ghosts of pain while still witnessing the glories of love, nature, and his ongoing experiences with the rich daily life of contemporary Vietnam.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eReaders will face the solitude of regret and the hopeful pursuit of redemption—remembering the past and looking toward the future.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePraise for \u003cem\u003eApostle of Desire\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e“Bruce Weigl’s 15th collection of poetry, \u003cem\u003eApostle of Desire\u003c\/em\u003e, reminds me what people were feeling in 1968, blood in our streets and in the streets of Vietnam, where your brother, father, son—or you—faced deadly combat. Weigl was an 18-year old Ohio soldier who saw and participated in unshakable human damage. He became, afterward, the preeminent poet of the experience Americans have tried for decades to dodge. From the start, his poetry’s love of country, and outrage at our failed national morality, echoed Whitman and Melville; the shock and despair those giants turned into art, their pleas for the future. \u003cem\u003eApostle of Desire\u003c\/em\u003e is Bruce Weigl’s chronicle of how one veteran has carried on a singular postwar détente, including intense and multiple returns to Vietnam and years spent engaging its culture, life, citizens, shrines, dreams, and especially poets, translating and publishing them in the US, marrying the two languages as redemption. His stories of how it felt to come home a pariah and a hero, depending on who was talking, compose a hard misery that has not yet ended, but his mature poetry becomes a celebration of Vietnam’s rivers, mists, flowers, hand-holding lovers, children, and abundant and joyful human-ness. Weigl’s poems are—make no mistake—tough, unflinching, and demanding in his quest for self-reclamation. That’s what our country trained him to be. But what most stands out in \u003cem\u003eApostle of Desire\u003c\/em\u003e is a kind of holiness like the songs of monks, and that barbed, witty, lonesome knowledge only deeply examined experience provides. Whitman’s. Melville’s.  I think \u003cem\u003eApostle of Desire\u003c\/em\u003e is what poet James Wright meant when he said he wanted to write the poetry of a grown man. This complex, serious book is about American conduct. It is grown-up and splendid.” \u003cstrong\u003e—Dave Smith, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of\u003cem\u003e Hunting Men: Reflections on a Life in American Poetry\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch6\u003e\u003c\/h6\u003e\n\u003ch4\u003eLoving the Thái Bình River Ghosts \u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI know this Hồ Chí Minh City \u003cbr\u003erain \u003cbr\u003eis no different than rain anywhere else\u003cbr\u003eonce you get right down to the rain-ness of things,\u003cbr\u003ealthough it falls from the sky\u003cbr\u003eacross the south China Sea \u003cbr\u003ein drops as large as rice bowls.  I know\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eeven this far from home there are ghosts, \u003cbr\u003ebut the dead all speak the same language. Speak to me in your language,\u003cbr\u003erattle your bones to make a beat\u003cbr\u003ethat carries us away.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOA Editions, Ltd.","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46850248442085,"sku":"","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"ebook","offer_id":46850248474853,"sku":"","price":5.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":47297262846181,"sku":null,"price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/files\/ApostleofDesire_FrontCover_SS25.jpg?v=1729191003"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0982\/0178\/collections\/150.1389799611.jpeg?v=1449014601","url":"https:\/\/shop.boaeditions.org\/collections\/bruce-weigl.oembed","provider":"Boa Editions","version":"1.0","type":"link"}