Marching Orders: Poems by Bill Glose

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This powerful collection of poetry by veteran of the first Gulf War, Bill Glose, manages to be violently truthful, harshly hopeful, angry and yet forgiving. Probably only a combat veteran could have written anything with this truth; but only a poet gifted with the ability to find the right images and words could have made the ugly, fearful, heroic truth so beautiful and moving.

This is one of the best collections of poetry I have read by a poet writing today. It should be read by everyone, whether they like reading poetry or not. Live the experience of our warfighters through the vivid language of Glose and, as he writes in “Homecoming,” “Never let it go.”



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