‘10 Haiku about Operation Desert Storm’

Feb. 24, 2021 marks the 30th anniversary of the start of the 1991 coalition ground campaign to liberate Kuwait called Operation Desert Storm.

Hostilities ended in a cease-fire approximately 100 hours later, on Feb. 28, 1991.

The poem series “10 haiku about Operation Desert Storm,” by Randy Brown, first appeared in the anthology Proud to Be: Writing by American Warriors, Vol. 6, published by Southeast Missouri State University Press 2017.

In recognition and reflection on this anniversary, this blog will daily post one of these haiku poems for the next 10 days. This is the first time these haiku have been presented in a visual format.

Haiku No. 1:

Boonie hat. Suede boots.
“Chocolate-chip” camouflage.
Gas mask on my hip.

Poet & Journalist to Speak at FREE Writing Seminar

The writer of the "Welcome to FOB Haiku" and the FOBhaiku.com blog will be one of six speakers featured at this year's Norwich Military Writers' Symposium, Oct. 7-8, 2020.

Hosted by the Norwich University centers for Peace & War Studies and Global Resilience & Security, and underwritten by the Pritzker Military Museum & Library Partnership, this year's event is being conducted entirely on-line due to concerns related to COVID-19.

Attendance is FREE and open to the public, with registration. (NOTE: Use browsers Chrome, Firefox, or Microsoft Edge for registration page; Internet Explorer is not supported.) (NOTE: All times are Eastern DAYLIGHT Time.)

Poet, journalist, book editor, and Military Writers Guild board member Randy Brown, who often blogs under the pseudonym "Charlie Sherpa," will speak on the topic of "Aiming to Publish: Military-themed Writing Tips, Techniques, and Markets." The talk is targeted to writing practitioners of all genres and media formats.

"I'm thrilled to be in conversation with present and future leaders, about how they can engage in professional discourse, not only through written argumentation and analysis, but also through literary and speculative fiction, creative non-fiction, and even poetry and comic books," says Brown.

Established in 1996, the Norwich Military Writers' Symposium annually gathers writers, historians, journalists and biographers to the campus of Norwich University, located in Northfield, Vermont.

One of six senior military colleges, the U.S. Department of Defense recognizes Norwich University as "the birthplace of Reserve Officers' Training Corps." The private institution serves more than 2,100 undergraduates and 1,300 graduate students via on-campus and on-line classes.

Past Norwich Military Writers' Symposia have covered topics ranging from "Future Battlefields," "Endless War," and "Cyberwarfare and Privacy." The theme of this year's event is "Weaponizing Water: Ancient Tactic, New Implications." For a teaser video, click here.

"Water and warfare share a long history, and today’s implications are equally strategic and tactical," organizers write. "From the power struggle in the Arctic, to the war over water in the Middle East, to conflicts in Africa from depleted water resources, the intersection of the environment and security is an issue that will shape the twenty-first century."

The annual symposium also highlights the William E. Colby Military Writers' Award, which recognizes "a first work of fiction or non-fiction that has made a major contribution to the understanding of intelligence operations, military history, or international affairs."

This year's awardee is Adam Higginbotham, author of the non-fiction work "Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster." 

The 2020 event will feature six speakers using the GoToMeeting web application. 2 ​ 3 All times are Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) (UTC-4):

9 a.m.—10 a.m., Wed., Oct. 7, 2020:

Nadhir Al-Ansari, Globally Recognized Engineer and Author 

Topic: "Analyzing the Complexities of Hydro-politics and Conflict of Tigris and Euphrates Rivers"

11 a.m.—12 Noon, Wed., Oct. 7, 2020:

David Kilcullen, Leading Global Security Expert, Thought Leader

Topic: "COVID, Conflict and Water: Lessons from the Arab Spring"

12 Noon—1 p.m., Wed., Oct. 7, 2020:

Adam Higginbotham, 4 2020 Colby Award Winner

Author of: "Midnight in Chernobyl"

2 p.m.—3 p.m. Wed., Oct. 7, 2020:

Sherri Goodman, Leading Environmental Security Expert

Topic: "Water and Climate Security in an Age of Global Disruption"

4 p.m.—5 p.m., Wed., Oct. 7, 2020:

Randy Brown, Author and Journalist

Topic: "Aiming to Publish: Military-themed Writing Tips, Techniques, and Markets"

6 p.m.—7 p.m., Wed., Oct. 7, 2020 (Via Facebook Live here.)

Nicole Navarro, Norwich University Class of 2021, 2020 Schultz Fellow

Topic: "How the People’s Republic of China is Weaponizing Water Ports to Control Business, Politics, Perspective and Trade in Tanzania."

12 noon—1 p.m., Thurs., Oct. 8, 2020 (View on Norwich Writers' Symposium website here.)

Panel discussion moderated by William Lyons

New Poetry at 'The Wrath-Bearing Tree'

The author of "Welcome to FOB Haiku" has new work appearing in The Wrath-Bearing Tree, an on-line journal of culture and politics often written from the perspectives of military family, veterans, and service members. Poems there are also often inspired by recent news events and headlines.

Randy Brown's new work includes three extremely short poems. Some are only a few lines in length.

"A literary journal editor once gave me the gift of calling one of my 'micro-poem' experiments a 'koan,'" says Brown. "A 'koan' is a "paradoxical anecdote or riddle a paradoxical anecdote or riddle, intended to provoke enlightenment. Her insight helped me unlock a mystery of my own making—just what was at work in these 'fragments of bird song?'"

"I wrote the poem 'America' after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but before the civil unrest following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis," he says. "It is a poem that keeps changing on me; every time I think I know what it's about, it shifts on me. I resisted the title, at first—it seemed potentially too on the nose, and maybe a little hackneyed. Now, I think it wouldn't work under any other name."

The three new poems are:

• "daily exercise (haiku)
• "America"
• "I tell my children"

A former magazine editor and 20-year retired veteran of the Iowa Army National Guard, Brown embedded as civilian media with his former unit in Afghanistan, May-June 2011. Brown is a past winner of the "Untold Stories" competition sponsored by Flyway: The Journal of Writing & Environment, and a finalist in the Darron L. Wright Memorial Writing Awards, administered by the on-line literary journal Line of Advance.

A former newspaper journalist, Brown encourages other poets and veterans to engage in artistic reactions to current events. News-driven poetry markets include, but are not limited to:

• Rattle magazine's weekly "Poets Respond" feature.
• The Wrath-Bearing Tree
• The New Verse News
• Poets Reading the News