Among this poetry, are a few of my poems.
Not that I think they rates or are on par with some of these great poets.
The poetry comes from deep in the poet soul.

"The dead...are more real than the living...
Because they are complete."
- Siegfried Sassoon

"Life for the majority of the population.
Is an unlovely struggle against unfair odds.
Culminating in a cheap funeral."
- Siegfried Sassoon

"You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye.
Who cheer when soldiers lads, march by.
Sneak home and pray you'll never know.
The hell where youth and laughter go."
- Siegfried Sassoon

58,267 NAMES

ON the Vietnam Memorial.
I wonder what stories.
They might tell?
Of their dreams?
Of their fears?
Might they ask;
Did we die in vain?
Did tou feel any pain?
Did our nation learn anything?
Did our deaths teach them;
That war is not just a word.
It will mean other names.
On other Memorial walls.
- Ricardo

"War was not what men had envisioned it to be.
But then. war probably never is.
The truth is that 'they never quite had the imagination'.
To see themselves dead.
A deficit of imagery that was partially redressed."

"A man did not go into combat.
In Vietnam, he gingerly stumbled.
Around the jungle while fighting the climate.
While waiting for combat to find him.
The initative was ofter with the enemy."

A GENI IN A BOTTLE

"There's a side of my being,
That I have put away.
Much like a 'geni in a bottle'.
Its what I became in Vietnam.
I had hope not to see him again.
No one has seen this side of my being.
He's in a place that nobody can find.
He part of my soul.
The insanity of war.
Times he comes back.
Almost like a ghost.
To tell me, 'I'm still here'.
In this bottle.
That really is my soul."
- Ricardo

SURVIVORS

"We the survivors.
Of war.
Owe much to the real heroes.
Who's service.
We commemorate.
On Memorial Day."
- Ricardo
I wish to dedicate this small poem.
In the memory of David Thomas.
Who lost his life in Vietnam.

A PICTURE OF A MARINE

"MY tears were private.
All the dying and suffering.
Overcame me, there was nobody.
That I could talk to, I suffered alone.
My tears were private.
Can you see this picture of a Marine?
Can you see ME?
- Ricardo

THE VETERANS

Thier eyes had the dull expression.
Of men, who are chained.
To an existance.
Of ruthless practicalites.
They struggled just to stay alive.
- Philip Cuputo

THE GRUNTS

Thought, we were victims.
Of a great practical joke.
Played on us.
By God or Nature.
- Philip Cuputo

Plaques and memorials.
Are reminders.
But they make it harder.
For our nation.
To sink into amenesia.
For which it longs.
It wishes to forget,
It has FORGOTTEN.
- Philip Cuputo

"May America's youth,
Never forget,
The price of freedom.
And may her leaders.
Never forget,
Who does the paying."
- Ricardo

"On the end of a war.
Will men celebrate.
Their deeds?
Making it easier.
For the next war.
Bring a shovel.
Or a spade.
And follow me.
To dig another grave,
For those still ALIVE."

"The qualities valued.
By a community of men.
Are good nature.
Generosity.
And COURAGE."

My small way to honor.
All the men and women.
Who died in the service.
To our great nation.