Violence. Trauma. Memory. Isolation. These are just a few of the themes Graham Barnhart explores in his first collection of poems, many of which were written or begun during his years as a US Army Special Forces medic. Ranging from conventional lyrics and narrative verse to prose poems and expressionist forms, the poems here display a strange, quiet power as Barnhart engages in the pursuit and recognition of wonder, even while concerned with whether it is right to do so in the fraught space of the war zone. We follow the speaker as he treads the line between duty and the horrors of war, honor and compassion for the victims of violence, and the struggle to return to the daily life of family and society after years of trauma. Evoking the landscapes and surroundings of war, as well as its effects on both US military service members and civilians in war-stricken countries, The War Makes Everyone Lonely is a challenging, nuanced look at the ways American violence is exported, enacted, and obscured by a writer poised to take his place in the long tradition of warrior-poets.

About the Author
Graham Barnhart is a Wallace Stegner Poetry Fellow in the Department of Creative Writing at Stanford University.


Book Information
ISBN 9780226660462
Author Graham Barnhart
Format Paperback
Page Count 96
Imprint University of Chicago Press
Publisher The University of Chicago Press