Walt McDonald: "The War in Bosnia"

On this Veterans Day the VPR Poem of the Week is Walt McDonald’s “The War in Bosnia,” which was published in the Fall/Winter 1999-2000 issue (Volume I, Number 1) of Valparaiso Poetry Review. McDonald appeared as the featured poet in that initial issue of VPR.

Walt McDonald has published two dozen collections of poems and a book of fiction, including Faith Is a Radical Master (Abilene Christian University Press, 2005), Climbing the Divide (University of Notre Dame Press, 2003), All Occasions (University of Notre Dame Press, 2000), Blessings the Body Gave (Ohio State University Press, 1998), Counting Survivors (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995), and Night Landings (Harper & Row, 1989). His poetry also has appeared in numerous journals, including American Poetry Review, American Scholar, Atlantic Monthly, First Things, JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), London Review of Books, New York Review of Books, Poetry, Sewanee Review, and Southern Review.

McDonald was an Air Force pilot, taught at the Air Force Academy, and served as Texas Poet Laureate in 2001. In May 2002, he retired from Texas Tech University as Paul Whitfield Horn Professor of English and Poet in Residence. When Walt McDonald appeared as the featured poet in Valparaiso Poetry Review’s debut issue, he also contributed an essay of practical advice for beginning poets, “Advice I Wish I’d Been Told.”

Tuesday of each week “One Poet’s Notes” highlights an exceptional work by a poet selected from the archives of Valparaiso Poetry Review with the recommendation that readers revisit it. Please check the sidebar to view the list of poets and works that have been past “Poem of the Week” selections. Additionally, readers are reminded that VPR pages are best read with the browser font preference in which they were set, 12 pt. Times New Roman, in order to guarantee the stanza alignment and the breaks of longer lines are preserved.