Rhymer in the Sunset: A Poetic Perspective of the Vietnam Experience

by Phillip Woodall

Rhymer In The Sunset is a book of poetry that tells the Vietnam story from a combat soldier's point of view. The poems were literally written in the heat of battle on scraps of paper, anything... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0934145679
• ISBN13: 9780934145671
• Release Date: October 1999
• Publisher: Airborne Press
• Length: 100 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Bet You Can't Read the Whole Thing

I met the author of this book in 1965. He and I have been friends for over 35 years. When I met him, he was the highschool football team quarterback, basketball star, track star, and actually a pretty good student. I never never knew about his poetry writing until the year 2000. I could not read the whole book without crying from his sensitivity and descriptive choice of words to describe where he was and why he was there. Here are the words that a soldier wrote, here are the words of the son of a preacher, here are the words of a man that was willing to give the ulitmate sacrifice for the rest of us, and here are the words of someone we can never appreciate enough, because Phillip Woodall is writing the story of every soldier, son, and friend.

Found the book difficult to close

Although I don't usually read poetry, I was surprised when I opened this book and found it difficult to close. I have read a number of war stories, many of which were about Vietnam, the people who were there and their accounts of specific events that took place. Some of them tell very emotional stories of loss, sacrifice and friendship. But not until now have I read words that truly reveal the emotions that had merely been described in the past. Instead of showing events through the eyes of a soldier, Phil Woodall's verse allows the reader to feel a moment in time with the emotions of a human being trying very hard to comprehend what is happening to him and the people around him. As such, it is much less a book of poems about wars fought by soldiers on far away battlefields, and more about the battle that rages within the souls of those who fought them, and are still fighting them long after.

Making Me Like Poetry

Rhymer In The Sunset is making me like poetry. I dislike poetry when it seems to ramble in search of rhyme, often at the expense of any sense of logic. My military mind likes order, discipline and symmetry. The author of Rhymer drew me into his head. His thoughts are those of a person during a lull in the battle. One lies there, waits, and his mind races. It took me back to Vietnam, jungle firefights, minutes of terror and hours of tedium. It is a great read.

Powerful Words from the Field of War

Here are the moving words of a young soldier as he wrote them straight from the battlefield. At times these words brought out so much hurt, so much passion that they were hard to read. Yet I kept picking up the book at random to read another story. In the poem "A Hundred Paddy Warriors" the author shows a few tongue-in-cheek good things about being a soldier. There is grief and pain in this book, and there is healing. Thank you, Mr. Woodall.

Great book, interesting, and well worth the price!

I am usually not into poetry but was curious about a book featuring poetry of Vietnam experiences. I am a child of the 60s and Vietnam will always be for me, a big part of what was going on in our country, both politically and culturally. I would recommend this book to anyone with even a casual interest in Vietnam. The author's words and the pictures are moving and memorable. Few books today are so affordable and offer so much.