When a Poet Gives a Gift -- From the War

We brought award-winningpoet Brian Turner to our corner of Vermont last week for a pair of readings -- one in the school, one public. I think for the students especially, it was amazing to talk with this man who'd been a sergeant in Iraq and who had the skills to tell them his experience vividly.

This morning a friend sent me word that Brian Turner's latest New York Times blog piece, Requiem for the Last American Soldier to Die in Iraq, in the special section called Home Fires, opens on the deck at the back of our house. Maybe you'd enjoy reading it. I certainly did! And although the text is a clear call to trying to know daily -- as much as a "civilian" on the home front can -- the cost and presence of this war, I receive it also as a gift from this poet and new friend. Thanks, Brian; you found just the right way to touch our hearts.