Emerson Gilmore

It Looks Like What I'll Take to My Grave Emerson Gilmore

I served in the Viet Nam War from January, 1970 through February, 1971, working as an interrogator and interpreter. I traveled as far north as Ban Me Thuot and as far south as Ben Tre City interrogating prisoners and interviewing defectors. During that time, I saw a lot of the war. I was a non-combatant, a witness. Do not think me a hero. For the fifty years from my departure I have spent time off-and-on pondering what I saw, what I did, processing it and reprocessing it. Since I began seriously writing poetry, about forty years ago, I have written poems that plot that processing as I aged. It Looks Like What I'll Take to My Grave is the resulting collection.