From
Kellscraft Studio Publishing:
The
Writings of
Doug Rawlings
Note from the Author:
"I
was first introduced to the idea of political poetry on October 18,
1970, about midnight, in an all-night Harvard Square corner
bookstore. A few months before that encounter I had returned from
the war in Viet Nam. To say that I was confused and angry is an
understatement. I was also somewhat lost. Then on that
fateful night I found this wonderful collection of poems by Denise
Levertov that captured her journey to North Viet Nam as a peace
activist. This was the first serious “discussion” I had read from and
about “my” war. And true to what Robert Bly considers effective
political poetry, Levertov used the personal to open up the
universal. I was captured, and unlike my response to military
“service,” I did not want to escape. Instead, I sought out more
of her work and other poets and, eventually, began to write my own
poems."
Links to Doug Rawlings Readings, Articles, and Reviews:
Upcoming Events:
November 11, 2023
Vietnam Veteran to speak at Blue Hill Library
Doug
Rawlings, president of the Maine Chapter of Veterans for Peace and an
award-winning anti-war poet will speak of his recent return to Vietnam
in the Howard Room of the Blue Hill Library at 7pm, Saturday, November
11th. Fifty-three years ago Rawlings served with the 7/15th
Artillery located at a firebase in the central highlands of
Vietnam. He vowed that he would not return as a tourist, so being
invited to speak of G.I. resistance to the war and to present his
poetry at a conference in Hue City made his trip possible. The
organizers would have found Rawlings’ credentials inarguably
compelling. In 1985, he, along with four other Vietnam war
veterans, conceptualized and founded Veterans for Peace. Today,
the organization is a prominent player in a growing clamor in
opposition to war as an instrument of foreign policy with thousands of
members, chapters in every state and six international
affiliates. Rawlings’ presentation will include slides of his
visit to the former DMZ and to Khe Sanh. He will report on the
work being done by Project Renew, under the direction of Chuck Searcy a
veteran now living in Hanoi, dedicated to the disposal of
unexploded ordnance, and by Vietnam Friendship Village, a residential
facility for the victims of Agent Orange founded by veteran George
Mizo. Rawlings will read some of the poetry he presented in
Vietnam.
Sponsored by:
Americans Who Tell the Truth
Island Peace and Justice
Peninsula Peace and Justice
Contact: Dud Hendrick
207-249-8319
________________________________________________________________________________
Sept. 13, Wednesday,
4:00 PM.
Hosted by Mainers for Ending Nuclear Dangers,
a conversation with
Midori Morrow and with Doug Rawlings.
Register through ME PSR HERE.
Sept. 17, Sunday
3-5pm
Portland Media Center 516 Congress St, Portland, ME 04101
Doug Rawlings returned to Vietnam in early August with his son, Josh, to speak at a conference
in Hue City. Fifty-three years ago Rawlings was in the 7/15th Artillery located at a firebase in
the Central Highlands. He vowed that he would not return as a tourist, so being invited to
participate on a panel discussing the G.I. resistance to the war made this trip possible. Once in
Vietnam, he and his son were given the opportunity to meet with Project RENEW staff as well as
with Friendship Village staff members. They travelled from Hue to Dong Ha in the Quang Tri
Province, to Khe Sanh, and to the DMZ. This presentation of pictures taken along the way
attempts to capture the essence of one veteran's journey back to a former war zone.
~90 min. talk, and Q & A. With a “touch of nostalgia and politics”
________________________________________________________________________________
News article review of:
La Fille dans la photo
et autres poèmes
by
BENAOUDA LEBDAI
From
El Watan (Algiers), Thursday, September 22, 2022, p. 12
Click the image to read in French or English (translation by Daniel Gunn)
click image to read the review in original French
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click image to read the review in the
Englich translation
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________________________________________________________________________________
Article in DownEast magazine, November 2021:
"Doug Rawlings on Peace, Poetry, and a New Generation of Vets"
________________________________________________________________________________
Announcement of a Lifetime Achievement Award from Veterans For Peace for Doug Rawlings.
Peggy Akers, Maine Chapter member:
________________________________________________________________________________
Building Peace Story by Story - Western Maine Storytelling
In Association with The Peace Alliance
With Guest Doug Rawlings:
https://www.vimeo.com/704728892
________________________________________________________________________________
An Interview With Teresa Mei Chic and Doug Rawlings - Spring 2022 Connections Literary Series, College of Southern Maryland:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFFKs9z_0uQ
________________________________________________________________________________
This is a recording of Doug Rawlings on a segment of MPBN's Music That Moves Me,
reading his poem, "A Poem For My Father":
https://www.mainepublic.org/show/music-that-moves-me/2016-05-26/doug-rawlings
________________________________________________________________________________
Hear a recording of Doug Rawlings' poem “Grandparents’ Conundrum"
read by Maine's poet laureate, Stuart Kestenbaum, for Maine Public radio:
http://www.mainepublic.org/post/grandparents-conundrum
________________________________________________________________________________
For a video of Doug Rawlings reading his poetry for the New Commons
Project (2/21/2019) please visit this site:
https://vimeo.com/343483278
________________________________________________________________________________
Books by Doug Rawlings
POETRY
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- 48 pages
- Softcover
- Available for purchase in
September 2022
- Poetry, with B&W and Color images
- Trade (6 x 9 inches)
- $15 with free shipping
Order
a copy directly from the author:
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La Fille dans la photo
et autres poèmes
Doug Rawlings
Traduits de l’américain
par Daniel Gunn
Illustrations réalisées par
Robert Shetterly
L’Impermanence
Roulant à ce dégel d’un après-midi de mi-janvier
je trouve le ciel impitoyablement bleu
et le porche tout juste assez chaud
pour y paresser pendant quelques moments
somptueux
Je contemple la grange à l’autre côté de la rue
à travers l’objectif d’un glaçon
bien se défendant entre
un décès lent, goutte à goutte,
et une urgence de s’accrocher un peu plus
longtemps
La grange à presque deux cents ans
se tient debout toujours
Le paresseux dans sa septième décennie
rêve toujours
Mais on ferait bien de tenir compte
de la leçon du glaçon
le plus resplendissant de nous tous
qui existe tout court
jusqu’à ce qu’il n’existe plus
La Fille dans la photo
(à Phan Thi Kim Phuc)
« Ce que tu fuis devient ton ombre. » —traditionnel
Si t’es ‘namvet, une sorte de rescapé,
elle viendra te chercher à travers les décennies
projetant son ombre dans le crépuscule de tes rêves,
nue, à neuf ans, aux yeux terrifiés.
Bien sûr tu devras l’ignorer
si tu veux survivre au fil des années
mais alors tes filles auront neuf ans
et ensuite tes petites-filles neuf ans
lorsque les ombres s’allongent.
Donc tu n’auras pas de choix cette nuit-là
roulant à toute allure au Ridge Road, sans phares,
sous la pleine lune, et elle se tenant là au milieu de la rue,
toujours nue, toujours à neuf ans, aux yeux terrifiés.
Maintenant tu dois t’arrêter, la relever, la porter
chez elle, d’où elle est venue, à ce petit village doux
où ceux qui pardonnent et ceux qui sont pardonnés
se réunissent à midi. Il n’y a pas d’ombres.
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Extremist. Robert Shetterly
Le Retour. Robert Shetterly
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- 172 pages
- Hardcover with Dust Jacket
- Available for purchase in
October 2021
- Poetry, prose and B&W images
- Trade (6 x 9 inches)
- $25 with free shipping
Order
a copy directly from the authors:
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Book by Teresa
Mei Chuc and Doug Rawlings
Cầu Tre
(Bamboo Bridge)
Conversations
between a Vietnamese Refugee
and
an American
Veteran
Told in Poetry and Prose
"How
could we create a more peaceful world? Perhaps, if we live in
reciprocity with
the earth, the water and each other and only take what we need and not
any
more, we could create a more peaceful world. I am inspired by
indigenous
poet-scientist Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass, and
think that perhaps, if we live with an allegiance not to nations or
governments
or religions but to gratitude, we could create a more peaceful world."
— Teresa
Mei Chuc
"Of
course for many exposed to war, it never ends. The physical dangers and
traumas are gone, but they are often supplanted by the psychological
demons that rise up in our dreams and sometimes in our daily
lives. How to come to terms with our participation in war?
I often think that we who have gone to war have suffered (and continue
to suffer) through existential identity crises. Am I that person
huddled down in a bunker, or am I that person walking down a crowded
city street? Maybe I’m both. Or neither. And how do I
'compartmentalize' war experiences so that I can control them, rather
than have them control me? Underlying all of this is an interesting
dynamic — I do want America to realize that my life was torn out of my
hands to 'serve' nefarious ends, yet, at the same time, I don’t want
anybody to know. I want to be 'normal.' I want to be left alone.
However, as a person struggling to be a peace activist, I realize that
my war experiences can often offer a different perspective that might
prove to be useful."
— Doug Rawlings
Samples from Cầu Tre (Bamboo Bridge)
Con Son
"She's become insane ….unable
to sleep
for fifteen days, believing herself to be a pampered dog that could
only eat
bread and milk. Not being given these, she refused to eat and became so
weak
she couldn't talk. When the wind blew she wanted to fly.”
— Father Chan
Tin, Vietnamese
Catholic priest
Even tigers in cages
are not
shackled like this.
Burning lime
poured over
their heads
through the steel
bars above
them. Above,
the
footsteps, the waiting pail,
the long
sticks used to poke and beat
the
emaciated and festering bodies.
Bodies
missing three fingers, bodies
with skull
slightly split open.
Yearning for
the lush green forests
of their
childhoods and the blue,
blue sky
where bodies are falling
from
helicopters.
— Teresa
Mei Chuc
UNEXPLODED
ORDNANCE: A BALLAD
for
Chuck Searcy and the thousands
of Vietnamese
who
are working to undo what we have
done
So
I was maybe all of twenty-one
when
they whipped me
into
some kind of soul-less shape
Yet
another one of America's
weeping
mothers' sons
Sent
forth into this world
to
raze, pillage, and rape
And
now it's coming on
to
another Christmas Eve
And
songs of joy and peace
fill
up our little town
How
I ask myself
could
I possibly believe
I
could do what I did
and
not reap what I had sown
In
that land far away
from
what I call home
A
grandfather leads
his
granddaughter by the hand
Into
a field where we did
what
had to be done
They
trip into a searing heat
brighter
than a thousand suns
— Doug Rawlings |
Teresa Mei Chuc in Hanoi
Don Evon
Don Evon
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- 52 pages
- Hardcover
- published in 2021
- Poetry and color images
- Square (8.5 x 8.5 inches)
- $20 with free shipping
Order
a copy directly from the author:
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Sample from A Baker's Dozen:
FIDDLEHEADS
Wondering out loud
one day
in a very special way
I wondered at this:
When I open up
my hand
what happens to
my fist?
Just then
in reply
a butterfly
all yellow, green,
and sunset red
brushed by
telling me
of the fiddleheads
marching up
from the meadow
each spring
just to carry down
past the woodchuck town
a year’s supply
of forgotten fists,
turning each
as they go
into
daffodils
buttercups
and daisies
as white
as snow.
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- 60 pages
- Paperback
- published in 2015
- Poetry and B&W images
- US Trade (6x9 inches)
- $15 with free shipping
Order a copy directly from the author:
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Sample
from A G.I. In America:
WORKING IN THE GARDEN
For Suel
Jones*
"Only
mad dogs and Englishmen
toil in
the noonday sun," he thinks
as he
does just that
Still, he
finds solace in burying
his
hands, his thoughts, in the warm soil
mindlessly
searching out those weeds
creeping
towards his beloved beans
Until
they come at him again — unbidden —
those
images of the village children
he was
ordered to think of as weeds
as better
to be wasted early on
than
allowed to grow
into the
enemy
Damn. Hic sunc dracones —
the
dragons coiled
at the
edge of the world —
lay
waiting for him
even in
this vegetable garden
so far
removed,
he had
hoped,
from
there
from then
*Suel is an ex-Marine, who
had returned to live in Vietnam. An NVA veteran said to him when Suel
asked if he were retired: "We don't use that term. We say that we are
returning to our gardens."
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Photos by Doug Rawlings |
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- 120 pages
- Paperback
- published in 2014
- Poetry and B&W images
- US Trade (6x9 inches)
- $15 with free shipping
Order
a copy directly from the author:
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Sample from Orion Rising:
SURVIVOR'S
MANUAL
To Judy
If your
arms and legs
are
still intact
you are
a survivor
If tall
meadow grasses
still
delight you with
their
sudden pheasants
you are
a survivor
If the
faces of passing children
remain
the faces
of
passing children
you are
a survivor
If your
nightmares
will
wait for the night
you are
a survivor
If you
can find your way
back
into someone's love
you, my
friend, are a survivor
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Illustrations by Carol
Scribner
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EDITED
BOOKS:
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Black & White Images:
- 204 pages
- Paperback
- published in 2020
- Letters in prose and poetry
- US Trade (6x9 inches)
- $15 with free shipping
Order
a copy directly from the author:
Color Images:
- 204 pages
- Paperback
- published in 2020
- Letters in prose and poetry
- US Trade (6x9 inches)
- $25 with free shipping
Order
a copy directly from the author:
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For the past six
years we have been delivering letters to the Viet Nam Veterans Memorial
(The
Wall) in Washington, DC on Memorial Day. This past year, because
of the Covid virus, we
decided not to hold our
usual ceremony. Instead,
letters
written for 2020 will be delivered individually by VFP member Mike
Marceau.
Over these past years we have collected and delivered a little over 500
letters. These
letters were
written by people who were “directly impacted” by the American war in
Viet Nam.
Since this is our last year of this project, I’d like to dedicate this
book to
all who have written letters over the years and to those members of
Veterans
For Peace who helped bring the Letters Campaign to fruition. The
spirits of the
men and women on The Wall will continue to motivate us all to work
towards
abolishing war from this planet.
—
Doug Rawlings
vietnamfulldisclosure.org
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS FOR THE 2019/2020 COLLECTION:
It
is always difficult to name everyone who has had an
influence on this collection of letters.
That said, there are a few people who should be given special
recognition for their efforts. I am
thinking of Howie Machtinger, the intrepid historian who launched our
Viet Nam Full
Disclosure project in Veterans For Peace that generated the Letters to
The Wall
project. If you go to the website
vietnamfulldisclosure.org you’ll find examples of his work including
the
time-lines that we have used in our last two collections. I am
thinking of Ellen Davidson whose amazing
skills as a photographer and as an activist have given us a
photographic
chronicle of our efforts over the years.
I am thinking of Roger Ehrlich whose installation “The Bell Tower,”
which was erected each year across from the Lincoln Memorial, gave us a
site to
ground our efforts and rally our spirits.
And, of course, special thanks to members of Veterans For Peace and our
allies who gathered each Memorial Day in Washington, DC to deliver the
letters.
We, the editors of this collection, offer you our sincere thanks and
deep
appreciation. Jeff Kelley and Doug Rawlings
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click image to enlarge
Photos by Ellen Davidson
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- 268 pages
- Paperback
- published in 2018
- Letters in prose and poetry with B&W images
- US Trade (6x9 inches)
- $20 with free shipping
Order
a copy directly from the author:
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"This is our
fourth year of delivering letters to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (The
Wall) on Memorial Day. We have delivered over 400 letters.
The collection you have in your hands includes letters written for the
2017 and 2018 ceremonies.
"Our request for letters was a simple one — “if you were
impacted by the
American War in Viet Nam, please write a letter to The Wall.” Of
course the process of writing such a letter to such an “audience” is a
daunting one. How does one write to an inanimate monolith?
How much does one want to bare one’s soul? How can one possibly
open up wounds from so long ago without sinking into despair? The
power of the letters you’ll find here attests to the strength of the
letter-writers as they realized, first, that they are addressing
individual souls, not a cold slab of black granite; second, that their
vulnerability enriches their words far beyond their expectations — well
worth the risk; and, third, that with the inevitable despair comes also
the satisfaction of knowing their words will further inform
others of the true costs of war."
vietnamfulldisclosure.org
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Photos by Ellen Davidson
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- 368 pages
- Paperback
- published in 2016
- Letters in prose and poetry with B&W images
- US Trade (6x9 inches)
- $20 with free shipping
Order
a copy directly from the author:
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"When in mid-2014 we in Veterans For Peace (VFP) first
heard of the Pentagon's Vietnam War history project, we were initially
intrigued. Soon we were angry. Very angry. Their website revealed a
game plan that appeared to be geared toward somehow justifying the
American War in Vietnam. You know, revising history to fit present and
future militaristic designs, while taking events out of context or
providing a very superficial backdrop for major benchmarks of the war.
Then and there we decided to mount a counter-offensive. We call this
VFP project FULL DISCLOSURE.
"The Full Disclosure campaign is a Veterans For Peace
effort to speak truth to power and, among other efforts, to keep alive
the anti-war perspective on the American war in Viet Nam
— which is now approaching a series of 50th anniversary
events. It represents a clear alternative to the Pentagon's current
efforts to sanitize and mythologize the Vietnam war and to thereby
legitimize further unnecessary and destructive wars. We quickly
put up our own web page (vietnamfulldisclosure.org) to further
contextualize the war and to provide a younger generation an
alternative resource for studying its causes and consequences. Visiting
our web site will provide the reader with a twelve year time-line to
parallel the Pentagon's version, an in-depth historical analysis that
includes anti-war resistance movement significant dates, a narrative
that includes the voices of the Vietnamese people, and a rich and
fascinating profile of the G.I. Resistance movement."
vietnamfulldisclosure.org
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Photos by Ellen Davidson
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Kellscraft Studio Publishing
Skowhegan, ME
Jeff Kelley, Editor and Publisher
JeffKelley@kellscraft.com
"...Because we all have a book inside of us waiting to get out, we're here to help make it a reality..."
Return to www.kellscraft.com
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