But I Remember Being Told That The

There's Something Immediate About The Experience Of Reading A Poem - Whether It's The Music Or Some Other Element Of It - That Just Seems To Access Another Part Of The Brain. You Know, Charles Olson Talks About This Transfer Of Energy That Happens Between The Writer And The Reader Of The Poem. I Guess There's Something Essential To Me About Acknowledging Upfront The Immensity Of It - The Difficulty Of It - And Even Allowing That To Be The Subject.

I Think A Lot Of The Guys I Know And A Lot Of People I've Talked To, What They Want Is Very Often What Most People Want, A Kind Of Simple Life, A Livelihood, A Family, People Who Care About Them, People They Can Care About. I Think Vets On The Whole Want The Same Things That Everybody Else Does.

The Male Role Models I Had All Seemed To Have Been In The Military. My Father Served In The Army. My Uncle Was In The Marine Corps. Both Of My Grandfathers Served In Wwii. There Weren't Any Career Soldiers In My Family, But When I Was Young It Seemed Like A Way Of Arriving At Adulthood.

It's Not Just: You Get Off The Plane, You're Back Home, Everything's Fine. Maybe The Physical Danger Ends, But Soldiers Are Still Deeply At Risk Of Being Injured In A Different Way.

I Understood That 'the Yellow Birds' Would Be A Peculiar Representation Of The Experience Of Being At War. I Intended It To Be So.