The Fall/Winter 2007-2008 issue (Volume IX, Number 1) of Valparaiso Poetry Review includes Janet McCann’s review of A Long Remembering: Return to Vietnam by Kay Mullen. The following excerpt drawn from the opening paragraphs of the commentary indicates some of what readers will find in Mullen’s fine book.* * * * *
In 1975, Operation Babylift brought more than 2000 orphans or abandoned children for adoption into homes all over the world. It had a tragic beginning. The first military evacuation flight, a cargo plane loaded with over 300 crew, children and adult escorts, crashed shortly after takeoff, and many of the babies and their escorts were killed. This tragedy raised awareness of and sympathy for the project, and many successful evacuations followed. Operation Babylift passed into history, but not for those babies who were brought up by their adoptive parents, and not for these parents themselves. Kay Mullen has written a tender and beautiful book of poems about her return to Vietnam with her adopted son, now a young man, and his meeting with the land of his birth, and about the impression his land made upon her, a visitor.
A Long Remembering is Kay Mullen's second collection of poetry; her first was Let Morning Begin (2001). Her sensitive eye for detail and her knowledge of human relationships provide for spellbinding poetry. Her sympathy for her son's viewpoint blends with her own vision. Past blends into present. The details are rendered in swift, telling strokes, and they are rich with symbolic suggestion. Many of us have only the vaguest image of rice paddies when someone says the word "Vietnam." This book is rich with the culture of the country and the tortured history of its inhabitants.
The poems are not about the Babylift only, clearly, but examine ideas and feelings about what home means. They look at the devastation war causes—and become quietly powerful arguments against war. Human and spiritual values are invoked and explored in a non-dogmatic, open-hearted way. These poems have a generosity of spirit that communicates itself to the reader . . ..
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I invite readers to examine the entire review, as well as a poem by Kay Mullen, “An Dinh Palace,” also included in the new issue.
1 comment:
I cordially invite all who are interested in Operation Babylift to the 35th Anniversary Program, April 24, 2010 at the New Jersey Vietnam Era. Educational Center Pleas contact lananoone@yahoo.com for complete details.
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