Feet of the Messenger, Paperback/H. C. Palmer

Descriere

``Between the horrors of the Vietnam War and the paci_ c silences of the Kansasprairie, H. C. Palmer honors both the beauty of the English language and the ancientpowers of poetry to speak experience without diminishing it. Seldom has thepoetry of war achieved such aesthetic intensity and moral clarity or so powerfullyraised us from the illusion that the wounds of Achilles will ever mend.``--B. H. Fairchild, The Art of the Lathe and Usher ``An epigraph in this first book by H. C. Palmer offers a clue to why the poetry isso affecting: 'to see and know a place is a contemplative act.' The places visitedin this little book are as varied as rural Kansas and war-torn Vietnam wherethe author was a battalion surgeon who returned home to practice medicine, deal with the family farm, and walk the trout streams in Wyoming, bringing hispast experiences with him, vividly, and with beautiful precision of detail evenwhen the events are disturbing...like my favorites: 'Resurrection, ' which traces adeadly bullet in reverse time back to its smelting in Independence, Missouri . . .or 'Bird-Hunting the Tall Grass, ' which tricks the reader into a flashback . . . or Palmer's elegant poems of lyric praise for nature like 'Ode to the Rio Grande Cutthroat' and the wonderful 'Tide.'--John Balaban, Remembering Heaven's Face and After Our War ``Encountering these poems you might think of B. H. Fairchild, James Wright, Gary Snyder, Brian Turner, but you'd be wrong. This is originalwork where time jumps, as does the boundary betwixt reality and dream, memory and imagination. And war, as it will, soaks all. H. C. Palmer writeswith the visceral authority of combat seen and visions earned. Vital, necessary reading . . .``--Donald Anderson, Fire Road and Gathering Noise from My Life: A Camouflaged Memoir ``As a young medical resident, H. C. Palmer was drafted by Lyndon Baines Johnson to serve in the Vietnam War. He treated comrades and woundedcivilians alike; he saw many die. In Feet of the Messenger,