Song of Napalm: Poems

by Bruce Weigl

Book Overview

"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

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0871134713
• ISBN13: 9780871134714
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
• Length: 88 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.4" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Defying Physical and Moral Death

Here is a poet with something truly meaningful to say, and he keeps saying it despite some people's objections that it's time to put "the past" behind. Weigl knows better. This collection of poetry has not lost its urgency and immediacy throughout the years. "The past" is very much alive in Iraq today. Weigl's distinctive voice takes us through the Vietnam War ordeal (and the daily reality after the return to the U.S.) from an American soldier's point of view. It is written with terrifying precision. As a poet, Weigl never leads the reader or tries to impress with overly dramatic images. He does not have to - the combination of his first-hand experience in Vietnam and the superb quality of his verse creates a vivid, lasting impact. It is impossible to remain untouched and indifferent after reading " still I close my eyes and see the girl / running from her village, napalm / stuck to her dress like jelly, / her hands reaching for the no one / who waits in waves of heat before her" (Song of Napalm, p. 33). The theme of innocent children affected by the war repeats in other poems, incl. "The Last Lie" (p. 18) where a Vietnamese girl reacts with disarming happiness and gratitude after being hit in the head with a can of C rations by an American soldier: "I could still see her when she rose, / waving one hand across her swollen, bleeding head, / wildly swinging her other hand / at the children who mobbed her, / who tried to take her food.... She laughed / as if she thought it were a joke / and the guy with me laughed / and fingered the edge of another can / like it was the seam of a baseball / until his rage ripped / again into the faces of children / who called to us for food." Weigl's speaker often describes dramatic events in an understated language - the result is gripping, meaningful poetry. We come face to face with a soldier dealing with a constant death threat in a foreign country, yet defying the possibility with everything he has ("Here is how you walk at night: slowly lift / one leg, clear the sides with your arms, clear the back, / front, put the leg down, like swimming" / "Mines," p. 43). Weigl's poems also address another important topic - the (often poor) treatment of war veterans in the society for whom they risked their lives, e.g. "I pumped gasoline from five to midnight / for minimum wage / because I had a family and the war / made me stupid, and only dead enough / to clean windshields. / When you clean the windshields of others / you see your own face / reflected in the glass" ("Mercy," p. 45). The collection includes mostly narrative and prose poems, each of them more than worth close, repeated reading. Weigl is definitely a poet whose work should be widely read and never forgotten.

Horrible Beauty

I was introduced to Weigl's Song of Napalm in college. I've always been what you might call "poetry challenged", but Weigl's work hit me like a fist in the mouth. I'm a Vietnam vet and it was the first poetry I'd read that seemed like it was being written for me, and only me. I understood every line, every turn of phrase and nuance. I remember reading the book with tears in my eyes. Weigl was gracious enough to allow me permission to use Elegy at the end of my novel, Flowers of the Dinh Ba Forest and I was honored to use it. But my favorite poem in the collection is the title poem. I just finished reading it, and once again it brought tears to my eyes. It always will. Give this book to someone you love.

I Burned That Stuff Too

Bruce Weigl is my second-favorite Vietnam poet next to Will Ehrhart. I hate to put it that way, but I hope Weigl is not offended and takes it as a compliment.Song of Napalm has some previous poetry, but that is okay."Mercy" speaks to me as a Vietnam veteran. When I got back from Vietnam I was actually refused a part-time job stripping shingles from a roof. The only job I got--and I had to argue for that one--at the time was pumping gas. At least I went to college and got a master's, but I do feel sorry for those who never had a chance. That is why I also ask for mercy, but never saw it coming my way."Song for the Lost Private" is another highly personal poem (what else is poetry). Those who never lost a friend over there can never understand our level of frustration. Weigl certainly gives you a good idea, though with "you didn't show/so I drank myself into a filthy room with a bar girl/who had terrible scars.""On the Anniversary of her Grace" is an outstanding poem regarding the connection (or disconnection) with our time in Vietnam and how it intrudes on life today. "Inside me the war had eaten a hole. I could not touch anyone. The wind blew through me to the green place/where they still fell in their blood." Speaking of attempts to love again, he ends the poem with "but I could not open my arms to her/that first night of forgiveness." And, like just who are we going to forgive, also crosses my mind?"Elegy," appropriately, is the final poem in this slim book, which needs to be savored in small doses. "Into the black understanding they marched/until the angels came/calling their names/until they rose, one by one from the blood." It ends with "Some of them died. Some of them were not allowed to." I can't think of a more proper way to end a book on Vietnam.

WOW

I read this and sent it straight to my father, a veteran of the insanity in Viet Nam. Weigl takes you there and makes you feel the stench, the stickiness, and the fear. War sucks.

weigl captures pain, intensity, twisted beauty

bruce weigl's poetrey in song of napalm really knocked me out...the title poem...disturbing and mournful is moving--"and not your good love"...weigl writes realistic yet euphonic poetry--as it should be...in his eyes grit glints like diamond kisses... bruce weigl is a contemporary master...his voice, tender sardonic urgent earnest weary unbroken,calls to "ourselves, which are holy."