“I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end.” —Matthew Hoh, the first U.S. official to publicly resign in protest over the Afghan war.

I talk too much perhaps regarding war, but it can hardly be denied. Last week I checked out The Good Soldiers by David Finkel from the libary, winner of the Pulitzer Prize that has been described as “a masterpiece that will far outlast the fighting.” Another author describes this work as “the best account I have read of life of one unit in the Iraq War.” They were called to war for “the surge” and “15 months later, the soldiers returned home—forever changed.”

Our daughter just returned from spending a weekend at Ft. Lenardwood, Missouri with her husband who is currently training there and then will be off to another training area in Texas and from there who knows what but there is suspicion. The Good Soldier is a difficult book to read but nothing like what it means to “serve” there.

Sunday I took my Emerson book back to the Unitarian Church where it was due. I had an hour to get there from Austin until I turned on the radio and discovered I had two hours to get there. I had forgot to set the clock back when I came home from work Saturday night.

With extra time I stopped at the roadside rest between Dexter and the Rochester turn off where the road used to get bumpy. I stopped to read “The Blessing” located in the rest area. The Sun was shining, that was nice, and the temperature was cold. I decided to make a copy of “The Blessing” for my reading enjoyment and made a quick sketch of those two Indian ponies whose eyes “darken with kindness. They come gladly out of the willows to welcome my friend and me.” In this case Wright’s friend is Robert Bly.

I think this engraved poetry ought to be required reading of every car heading east on I-90. Better Benner was telling me that Garrison Keillor had a program there or at least stopped there.

I always wonder where James Wright and Robert Bly actually stopped and “stepped over the barbed wire fence into the pasture where they had been grazing all day, alone.” In the closing line of the poem James Wright says, “Suddenly I realize/That if I stepped out of my body I would break into blossom.” Rather poetic.

A couple horses used to occupy the land off highway 63 on the north side of the freeway, and I often wonder if this is where they stopped.

Tim Brennan invited Betty Benner and I to visit his classroom Monday morning to share some poetry with his class. I was the driver. My driving is a little better than my poetry. Betty read some “family poetry” Tim had requested. Tim also shared some of his poetry with the class in a classroom highlighted by a quantity of paintings, heads with hats on them. Tim makes his way around the classroom not spending the day behind a desk. It was a treat for us to be there. Tim had said earlier when he invited us that his students are getting tired of hearing him and they needed some fresh voices.

And now if can get back to war again for a few lines… After returning Emerson book Sunday morning I found The Iraq Study Group Report—the way forward—a new approach to check out. I haven’t had time to read it yet but glancing at it I see reference to “oil.” In one of the assessments regarding Iraq another American general told them, “if the Iraqi government does not make political progress, ‘all the troops in the world will not provide security.’”

In Tim’s classroom, where they have ended their poetry, they are now moving on to memoir writing. And all the students, just about, had a copy of Old Friend from Far Away, the practice of writing memoir by Natalie Goldberg and also author of Writing Down the Bones. Both books are vital resources for students.

I will close with Garrison Keiller’s last paragraph in his Sunday spot where he says: “Time to move on. Tell the others. It’s a brand-new day. Let us start making our way on out of Afghanistan, Mr. President.”

I’m leaning that way.