memorial day

This is for the eight soldiers in the 3-61 Cav that lost their lives October 3, 2009. They were on the edge of the empire in small desolate Command Operating Base called Keating on the Afghan-Pakistan border. They along with 37 other US soldiers held off 250 to 300 Taliban in 12 hours of fighting.

Afghanistan in the review mirror

Rihaku was an ancient Chinese poet. I discovered his poems in Ezra Pound's "Translations" 30 years ago. The poems are filled with sharp concrete images, lyrical and haunt me. The following comes from an "Exiles Letter":

"And if you ask how I regret that parting:
It is like the flowers falling at Spring's end
Confused, whirled in a tangle.
What is the use of talking, and there is now end of talking,
There is no end of things in the heart.
I call in the boy,
Have him sit on his kness here
to seal this,
And send it a thousand miles, thinking.

www.lewisandclarkexpeditions.net

Hard winds of May

Today, I am packing for a trip down a river where you are gone for five days and four nights. We will be floating for 60 miles through a remote canyon in Montana. We are taking Disabled Veterans from the Wars. The Wars are Vietnam, Gulf 1 and now 2. The winds are coming from the north an ill sign. You can feel the ice as the wind slice through you.

When I was in Afghanistan, I would dream of being in remote country feeling safe and empowered. This is Montana my country. The country here gives me purpose. Fly fishing allows me grace. This is the place God whispers to me. Our hope is for the soldiers to get the same feeling. There is a time for war but there is also a time for healing.

www.lewisclarkexpeditions.net