Long Tet Poems

Quy Nhon and The Tet Offensive
By Franklin Price
9/2/2018

Quy Nhon and the Tet offensive, more than fifty years ago
That Chinese New Year changed our world and most its ebb and flow
Until that day the boonies were...

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I am the Mozart of my name
And I wait for you my Je’amour
To paint the parfai’d affair
And cross the fur elise of time
O vogue of vogues
Love is written in visions of glory
Even where the vogues...

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Ban Me Thuot
By Franklin Price
8/31/2018

Out in the Central highlands, far away from Cam Ranh Bay,
In the town of Ban Me Thuot was a place where I would stay.
There was no space available at any compounds...

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Vietnam in '68
By Franklin Price
08/10/2020

January '68, I arrived at Cam Rahn Bay
Found out this place, in Vietnam, was the best place I could play
Ground bound, in the Air Force, and living on the beach,
On a...

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The pro-Hanoi Vietcong many years ago
In the 1950's Diem's government they'd overthrow
All opposition was crushed killed or jailed
These elected ones to their people they failed

This Buddhist country so religious in belief
Now politically torn apart, impending...

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DUCK AFTER DUMP PING THE DON
air ring ma thoughts - no matter aye ham 
juiced one twenty first century mwm ape
serves as genuine s cape
to fly (during pitch black hours of night) and escape
burning effigies,...

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Disappointed Devil - Hood Das Fume And Fret

'Curse darned demon
     of that thar
     underworld nudged me abet
as a permanent solution
     to a temporary...

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It seems
on the roads net 
between you and me
i know every stone, mark and feature
talking with them tet-a-tet
about you, my dear friend.

So often and so long
i run to you
in my dreams,
plans, fantasia
and others spiritual and...

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It is so difficult to write about one's beliefs, 
On the Freedoms and Liberty we have.
Throughout our history events are replete,
Of the ones who have died, our Freedoms to save.

I go back in time when...

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I thought it was bad enough
when you took your people’s guns,
leaving them unable to defend
themselves or anyone,
making them incapable of
resisting evil’s sway,
leaving them adrift and helpless,
it is the tyrant’s way.
But now I see it’s even...

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Lying on my bed 
I could feel my heart beating 
I don't really know how to describe this feeling 

Lying to my dad
I could feel the pain within 
Every emotion is telling me to voice...

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This place is tucked out of the way,
across river from the city,
most folks don’t even know it’s here,
and I suppose that’s a pity.

Maybe the truck-stop that it serves
is what drives some people away,
but their hash-browns...

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The last strains of decrescendo were still in my ears
Dancing at the masque party time flew leisurely on downy feathers
The night was still youthful, the breath enjoying every fragrant inhale
The last strains of the decrescendo...

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Vietnam was Fifty Years Ago
By Franklin Price
8/30/2018

Vietnam was fifty years ago
Around the world across the sea
God went with me on tour
Now it's just a memory

The Air Force was my service branch
Ground navigation was my field
...

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is this what we all seek
to be one with nature
well I offer you this peek
this  a contrived feature
what it shows nature meek
fauna, flora. many a creature
a love for all life a tet a tet
with...

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1968
By Franklin Price
11/13/2018

The year was nineteen sixty eight, fifty years have passed since then
When I got to Vietnam, we still were there to win
Then Chinese New Year happened, Tet Offensive was its name
The regulars and...

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...And though I miss Riff playing shows with me,
I can't say that his decision is wrong,
I'll take my best friend however I can,
I need him to stay healthy and strong.

As for me, I guess I...

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Re-live the nineteen-sixties? Don't! We all 
imagine mop-tops, surf, free love and sun, 
conveniently forgetting Watts, De Gaulle, 
the Tet Offensive, Audrey Hepburn's nun. 

Imagine! Mop-tops, surf, free love - and sun! 
Transistor radios, Italian...

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I Spent My time
By Franklin Price
5/20/2015

I spent my time within the force
As did many then of course
Could have been to college free
But college life was not for me

I could say that duty called
To go where...

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I Am a Veteran
By Franklin Price
11/3/2015

I am a veteran growing old
Always went where I was told
Followed orders to the “T”
Volunteered that was just me

Basic training taught a lot
Learned to march to take a shot
Make a...

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It’s Tet, the Vietnamese new year, and
 people buy small Japanese-looking shrubs, 
which the vendors tow on wooden trailers, 
behind their Hondas, and Yamahas

And the rush of the travelling wind, blows petals 
onto the street;...

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Why
			             do I				
                    ...

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Iambic Pentameter To Utmost

So up to what now have I been leading
My brilliant poems should be reading
On you will have such a severe effect
Regardless of which one you do select.

Many of them always seem to...

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Viet Nam has left many with mental pictures
Images, that some, just couldn't forget.
And when it was over and troops were home
Many vanished, living alone with their regret.

Some found themselves living on the streets
Disrespected and blamed...

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Oh, 
My love…
Where hath thy,
Gone? In deeper,
Sorrows where slings, arrows, and swords are drawn…

For I will love thy ways forever still,
In foolish dreams…
Love doth spill,
Beyond…
Streams.




April.24.2019
Tetractys This Poetry
Sponsored by: Charles Messina 


A Tetractys poem can be...

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