I will try to use this account - @nonitelites.bsky.social - to post some of the poems.

Anyone inclined to huff & puff about the challenging issues & emotions I touch on bc "veterans are fine, so don't bother with the poems" ... (it's happened, so zip it)

I have been gifted with precious pain.

19 Jan 2025 - I pulled out all my poems - starting with the awful ones scrawled in fading pencil from grade school. With the poems came a stack of emails (when Compuserve gave us online communities.) The emails were both long & eloquent, as well as pure pathos in their simplicity.

Tears ...

In 1998, I sent poems into a highly competitive individual artist grants from the Ohio Art Council. They were solely based on my processing of the war.

I figured I didn't have a chance in hell to get an award. War poetry from a civilian, ha!

Poem, "Looking Glass"
(c) constance lee menefee

I had researched aspects of the war and its history, helped locate people (buddies), as well as find incident reports for VA claims, so parts of the trip were déjà vu - disconcertingly so. I also began writing poetry - in a way, channeled from the stories I heard & veterans I met.

In February 1994, the United States lifted the trade embargo on Vietnam.

In April 1994, I had the opportunity to visit the country with some American veterans of the war & a curious nurse.