MWSA Book Review

Purple Hearts – Poetry of the Vietnam War

Author:  W. H. McDonald Jr.

Publisher:  BookSurge

Reviewer: Patty Biegun Hancock – from back cover

POETRY BY THE SPIRITUAL WARRIOR

After reading Purple Hearts, I realized it was not only for those who served in Vietnam, it was for their families as well.  It is also of importance to the student, researcher, the historian, not to mention the poet in all of us.

The majority of books by Vietnam Veterans were written after the fact, relying on memories.  Bill’s words, captured in stolen moments, are snapshots frozen in time.

In an age when our young boys should have been tinkering with hot rods and having their photos taken with giggling girls, fate ripped many from the fabric of American normalcy and threw them into a caldron of fire from which there were only two escapes: death or surviving a tour of duty.  Bill traded his hot rod for a Huey, his giggling girl for a M-60, and did what all soldiers did—prayed to make it through one more day.

In a vivid time wrap of words, you will sit beside a young poet, pencil in his trembling hand, as he scribbles on crumpled and torn paper.  Through monsoons and the unbearable heat of searing noonday suns, you will feel the power of Vietnam.

In Purple Hearts, Bill will take veterans by the hand and tenderly walk them to a higher place in their journey to inner peace.  Though the road to healing can be fraught with pitfalls, Purple Hearts shines a spiritual light into the darkness, exposing the imaginary ghosts and monsters that haunt man veterans.

Wives and children will come away with a better understanding of their loved ones who, at a young age, were robbed of their innocence.  This book will make you want to hold your husband, father, or grandfather tight, and your wives mothers, and grandmothers as well, for the women of Vietnam sacrificed much for our soldiers.

Though the poems in this book were written by a sole author, they are the stories of all our unsung heroes.  Purple Hearts is about wasted youth, lost dreams, dying, death, and rebirth; but most important it is about forgiveness.  Without forgiveness one can never heal.

So grab a box of tissue, find a quiet place, and take a journey with a true spiritual warrior into Purple Hearts.