Galway Kinnell is a
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet. A native of Rhode Island, he currently resides in
Vermont and
New York. Perhaps my favorite poem of his begins with a clear, lucid description of the natural beauty of a pond in
New England, with the last line of the first stanza describing the reflection of the
SAC bomber traversing the sky above it. It continues with a description of
Vietnam. This poem captures the essential contradictions of the
Cold War perfectly for me; the discussion of quiet nature and the
quiet (not blaring) intrusion of technology and war.
The poem is Vapor Trail in the Frog Pond, btw.