Conflicts and Emotions in Reality: War Poetry and Love Poems

During a 12-month deployment in Baghdad, Iraq, in 2003-2004, I wrote this book in frontline direct combat downrange. It captures and defines the daily hardships and trials encountered while navigating physical, emotional, and personal issues. The book was put up and stored in a duffel bag for 15 years to be respectful to all the troops serving and their families going through the conflict.

As it happened, I started to write in the form of reality poetry, documenting every circumstance I encountered or became engaged with. The most common styles I used were journaling and novelizing. This book, which I wrote in poetry, is different yet new for everyone to read. This book has poems that I lived word by word from situation to situation. Several poems were turned into songs and even sung on the spot. I have also written love poems. It is definitely reality writing at its finest. Over the years, I added additional poetry to the book from things that inspired or motivated me while traveling to build this collection of war poetry and love poems for the reader's delight and satisfaction.

These poems represent over a decade of occurrences with our military, our country's leaders, and all the media-created events proclaimed to the entire world during those times.