Green Soldiers

Green Soldiers has two discrete sections. The first, and most powerful, has poems about the World Wars that evoke the poetry of Wilfred Owen. Bensko is probably the only writer besides Stephen Crane who can create a vivid, intense atmosphere of a war without having had first-hand experience. The poems in the second section are about everyday topics--a girl in the park, children at a planetarium--but with interesting psychological twists. The book's final poem, "The Night-Blooming Cactus," is a meditation on lost love, and a strong ending to an excellent collection. Green Soldiers is the one poetry book I never ever lend to friends because it's out of print and I simply have to have it to read again and again.