New Poems at The Wrath-Bearing Tree

Six new poems from the author of "Welcome to FOB Haiku: War Stories from Inside the Wire" are published today in the October 2018 issue of The Wrath-Bearing Tree, an on-line journal of culture and politics often written from the perspectives of military family, veterans, and service members.

"I've found my 'writing about war' increasingly regards themes of social erosion as much as veteran reintegration," says poet Randy Brown, "and about navigating social media both as a consumer of information and as a parent."

Under the pseudonym of "Charlie Sherpa," Brown also writes about military culture at the Red Bull Rising blog, and military writing at The Aiming Circle.

The new poems include a soldierly parody of William Carlos Williams' "This is Just to Say," which is the source of many Internet memes. (For more history on the phenomenon, see here and here.)

The poems featured are:

victory conditions 

three more tanka from Des Moines, Iowa 

a future space force marine writes haiku 

This is just to Say All Again After … 

Most Likely / Most Dangerous Enemy Courses of Action

the stand

A former magazine editor and 20-year retired veteran of the Iowa Army National Guard, Brown embedded as civilian media with his former unit in Afghanistan, May-June 2011.

Earlier in 2018, Brown was the winner of the "Untold Stories" competition sponsored by Flyway: The Journal of Writing & Environment, and was a finalist in the Darron L. Wright Memorial Writing Awards, administered by the on-line literary journal Line of Advance.
His poetry was also previously featured in The Wrath-Bearing Tree in March 2017.