Joe Milosch graduated from San Diego State University. His poetry has appeared in various magazines, including the California Quarterly. He has multiple nominations for the Pushcart and received the Hackney Award for Literature. His books are The Lost Pilgrimage Poems and Landscape of a Hummingbird.
Before I retired, I worked for the last 40 years as a trail locator for the Cleveland National Forest and as a heavy equipment foreman in the private sector. My Poetry draws on those experiences; as well, as my experiences growing up in the farmland, north of Detroit, Michigan and my army experiences during the Vietnam War.
I was married for 33 years, and for 25 of those years, I was the primary health supporter for wife. She lost her fight against …show more content…
The first poem I wrote was published by John Fox in his book, Poetic Medicine.
In what seemed to me as strange occurrence, dealing with my wife’s illness released memories of my military experienced during the Vietnam. In the Army, my MOS was a 17L20, which is an aerial photographer. The memories that my illness triggered caused an anxiety attack.
In 1970, I was at the overseas station in Fort Lewis Washington. While I was waiting to be shipped to Nam, a friend my unit, the 152nd, appeared one morning in formation. He was part Native American and part European. During that formation, he received orders for Viet Nam, and I received orders returning me to our company in Fort Lewis, Washington.
It was a week later that I was informed that his plane exploded in Nam. In the mid-nineties, these memories prevented me from sleeping. One night I composed this poem.
My wife, Patsy, and I discussed my insomnia. As it turned out we suffered from similar anxieties. She wondered why she survived while other cancer patients who tried as hard as she did died after a couple of years. I wondered why I was not sent to Nam, which enabled me to survive the
Before I retired, I worked for the last 40 years as a trail locator for the Cleveland National Forest and as a heavy equipment foreman in the private sector. My Poetry draws on those experiences; as well, as my experiences growing up in the farmland, north of Detroit, Michigan and my army experiences during the Vietnam War.
I was married for 33 years, and for 25 of those years, I was the primary health supporter for wife. She lost her fight against …show more content…
The first poem I wrote was published by John Fox in his book, Poetic Medicine.
In what seemed to me as strange occurrence, dealing with my wife’s illness released memories of my military experienced during the Vietnam. In the Army, my MOS was a 17L20, which is an aerial photographer. The memories that my illness triggered caused an anxiety attack.
In 1970, I was at the overseas station in Fort Lewis Washington. While I was waiting to be shipped to Nam, a friend my unit, the 152nd, appeared one morning in formation. He was part Native American and part European. During that formation, he received orders for Viet Nam, and I received orders returning me to our company in Fort Lewis, Washington.
It was a week later that I was informed that his plane exploded in Nam. In the mid-nineties, these memories prevented me from sleeping. One night I composed this poem.
My wife, Patsy, and I discussed my insomnia. As it turned out we suffered from similar anxieties. She wondered why she survived while other cancer patients who tried as hard as she did died after a couple of years. I wondered why I was not sent to Nam, which enabled me to survive the