Scars in Love; A Review of H.Palmer Hall's Foreign and Domestic by Will Hochman
H. Palmer Hall. Foreign and Domestic. Turning Point. ISBN# 978­1-934999-74-5. Paper. 76 pp. $18.00.

Foreign and Domestic published by Turning Point (2009) is more than a fine, new book of poems; it is a book that finally constellates a major voice of poetry and war. Like a star late for the night sky, much of H.Palmer Hall's writing comes from light years ago to illumi­nate readers in our moments of need and wonder. Though lesser known than war poets like Brian Turner (Phantom Noise) or Yousef Komunyakaa (Dien Cai Dau), Hall stands shoulder to shoulder with anyone writing today. He is an accomplished Small Press force pub­lishing his work in fiction and non-fiction as well as poetry, and he is a nurturing force as the founding editor and publisher of Pecan Grove Press.

Any allegiance to critical truth demands that I disclose the fact that I have published Hall's poetry in War, Literature & the Arts and he has published a collection of my poetry (Freer). However, our relationship is not about the "PoBiz" of mutually assured appreciation so much as it is a love for understanding military conflict and how bending the light of human survival through the prism of poetry can save lives. The evidence of Hall's elegance and grit in the face of con­flict is overwhelming when one dips into the poems in Foreign and Domestic.

In the book's first poem, "To Wake Again," Hall establishes an ethos of creativity blooming for crisis and understands History as "an old becoming, / a path, not a fixed idea, a slow walk through flames." Throughout Foreign and Domestic readers are protected from the burning pain by Hall's critical persistence. In "The Marine Sulphur Queen," Hall recalls his father's crew lost at sea and doubts what is left behind in the poem while the poem itself is the "something more" Hall seeks. Despite a lack of wreckage or clues as to what happened to his father at sea, the poet establishes a poignant sense of lost traces of fatherly love and war.

The poems in Foreign and Domestic range beyond the topic of war but never go far from the ways in which violence and love collide. In one of the book's best known poems, "Big Thicket Requiem," Hall elegizes James Byrd, Jr., and sheds his poetic light on "A moment in the thicket, that moment / when the dark is darkest." Hall's talent is his ability to look violence in the eye and reflect a sense of understanding (not acceptance) that often grows into love. That doesn't mean that Hall loves war. The writer simply has a talent for making the feelings of youth and war accessible in his memories and poems, and he is often able to use time and everyday life to package the wisdom of his hard-earned insights.

There are more books written about the Vietnam Conflict than any other American war—approximately 3,500 tides—and four decades later writers are still thrashing through a jungle of feelings and facts to understand what happened to us. Readers of Foreign and Domestic will use the sharp blade of Hail's vision to poetically cut through to the moments of life and love that matter most. This collection compresses many of the fine ideas Hall explored in his book of essays (Coming to Terms) while offering his audience more tenderness and the unforgettable images and narratives that have most deeply shaped the writer's life.

Many of the poems in the book will resonate with readers who can understand the depths and complex range of emotions born from both military and personal conflicts. The poems in Foreign and Domestic willmake each reader's life hurt with a veteran's scars and each reader's heart will grow from this masterful writer's ability to reflect and re­fine his sense of place into our world. Hall's Foreign and Domestic establishes him as a war poet whose best work is second to none…and his life work makes it abundantly clear that, in Hall's case, "Small Press" means large literature.