In 1970, when I was writing poetry, some of which was very antiwar, a soldier in Vietnam was also creating verse. His name was Maj. Michael Davis O'Donnell of Springfield, Ill. Forty years ago, on Jan. 1, 1970 he wrote this poem that I read more than a decade later on a Vietnam memorial wall in lower Manhattan. It has been something I've never forgotten, and today I found it in a drawer.
Remembrances
If you are able,
save them a place
inside of you
and save one backward glance
when you are leaving
for the places they can
no longer go.
Be not ashamed to say
you loved them,
though you may
or may not have always.
Take what they have left
and what they have taught you
with their dying
and keep it with your own.
And in that time
when men decide and feel safe
to call the war insane,
take one moment to embrace
those gentle heroes
you left behind.
Major Michael Davis O'Donnell
1 January 1970, Dak To, Vietnam
Two months after writing this poem, Maj. O'Donnell's helicopter crashed in Cambodia. He was offically declared dead in 1978. His remains were repatriated to the US in 1995 and DNA confirmed it was him. His identification was made known June 20, 2001. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetary. More details are available at www.virtualwall.org/do/OdonnellMD01a.htm
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