Tuesday, April 16, 2013

News at Eleven: [John] Borling's poems hark back

to an age in which poetry functioned as a common vehicle in the storyteller's trade, and they express a proud military patriotism. The collection is framed extensively: a foreword by Sen. John McCain (in which McCain says he "met John after the Son Tay raid in November of 1970" while in the Hanoi Hilton) is paired with an introduction by Borling himself; Borling also provides a brief epilogue and an afterword, as well as a glossary of terms.

The poems, then, are set within this conversational grounding. The prosaic elements of the book make it clear that it wasn't written for poets.

from The Washington Post: 'Taps on the Walls: Poems From the Hanoi Hilton,' by John Borling

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