For quite some time now I have known that I would write my memoirs. This idea was instigated by the discovery of my mother’s WWII scrapbooks. I did not like my mother and although she did her best to raise her children she did the job poorly. It was not until after her death that I made the discovery of the scrapbooks. Several years later I had a significant spiritual experience that changed my life. The essence of this experience put me into the shoes of combat veterans and allowed me to feel war, to feel war and the hell of it. This experience taught me above all else about war. It was at this time and due to these collection of experiences that I came to understand both my mother and my father, their ways of life and the reasons they did what they did. For the first time I understood that both my mother and my father had Combat PTSD. The father part was easy as he served in The Mighty Eighth Army Air Force in Great Britain as an Ordnance Officer. The moment I understood something of war I fully understood my father’s life and his behavior. It was tragic really as it has been for so many who have been through war. But it never occurred to me that Mummy also suffered from Combat PTSD until I found these scrapbooks. And frankly I didn’t “get it” for about 11 years. She shared nothing of her war work in London or what she had done there. Of course, combat veterans never do.
I wish to accomplish three things as I write my memoir. 1. Share my own life experiences. 2. Highlight the war experiences of my parents and how they affected their children. 3. Relate how war effects generations to come. I did not wish to become maudlin and bogged down in emotion while writing these experiences. As a result I have decided to write my memoirs in verse, primarily using forms of Japanese poetry but also writing in free verse.
01) It Is Poetry To My Ears
02) The “N” Word
03) It Was The War
04) The Inn
05) Flight
06) The All-Star Game
07) Your Life Path Number Is 7
noh where 