Memoir Writing Prompts with Tom Keating, Author of Yesterday's Soldier

During the Covid19 lockdown this spring, Tom Keating sent over some videos for writing prompts on memoir. His new book, Yesterday’s Soldier tells of his time in Vietnam as a Conscientious Objector. Below he reads excerpts from his book, followed by writing prompts.

Excerpt One from Yesterday’s Soldier
Prologue

Tom Keating Reads from Yesterday’s Soldier - Prologue

Struggling to live a holy life, I watched others leave the seminary, some close friends. It was painful to say goodbye to them as they left, one after another. Of the twenty-seven in my freshman group of postulants, and after five years, only five of us remained. My friends from Bridgeport began to leave the seminary, too, which was extremely upsetting to me. First it was Ted, then Dan, and finally Mike and Jim, whom I had been very close with. It set me adrift, and disrupted my junior year and my religious life. It was noticed by others, especially Father Superior. I was late to prayers, sullen at times, and distant from others.

I was looking forward to being sent to Notre Dame University for theology studies and then ordination. I had finally made the Dean’s list academically, and my activities on campus with the college newspaper and yearbook were in line with the new attitude in the Church—going where the people are, being a witness to the Lord among them. Near the end of my senior year, I was called into Father Superior’s office to receive my assignment to theology studies at Notre Dame University.

It was a shock, then, when he said, “Tom, we don’t think you have a true vocation, and we will not send you to theology. You have what is known as a ‘temporary vocation.’” Father Superior had one more thing to say that would really change my life. “Tom,” he said. “We are required by law to notify your local draft board immediately of the change in your status from II-D, studying for the ministry, to I-A, available for military service. We have to send the letter before you leave here after graduation.”

Just like that, my life changed. I was not going to be a priest. I could be sent to a country 10,000 miles away, and could be carrying a rifle, walking in rice paddies. I had a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and a I-A draft classification, a prime target for the draft.

Writing Prompt One
Temporary Assigned Duty

Write about a time someone drastically changed your plans, or a time you trained for something you never got to do.

Excerpt Two from Yesterday’s Soldier
Basic Combat Training

Tom Keating Reads from Yesterday’s Soldier - Basic Combat Training

When I came back and walked up the stairs to the platoon area that Sunday everyone stopped talking, and watched as I walked toward my bunk. It was torn apart, the blankets, sheets and mattress on the floor; my footlocker busted open, and the contents thrown everywhere. Dexter stood by his bunk stifling a giggle. I looked across the room at Larry who tried hard not to smile, waiting to see how I would react. The rest of the platoon paused, waiting.

My rage inside me exploded, my face turned bright red. I reached into my wall locker for my bayonet, and ran over to Dexter, tackled him, put my knee on his back, pulled the bayonet from its scabbard, pushed his head down and put the cold steel edge of the bayonet against his neck. I shouted, “If you ever fuck with me or my stuff again, Dexter, I am going to kill you.

So help me God! Right here, right now. Got it?”

Dexter didn’t move. The barracks were funeral quiet. Blind with rage, time had stopped for me. After a scary pause, and with a shaky voice, Dexter said, “Yeah.”

My hands stopped shaking after a few minutes, and my body twitched as I cooled down. I could not believe what I had done.

Oh my god, I was going to kill that kid! I shivered again and realized that Basic Combat Training was working; I had learned how to kill. Five years of God, prayer, love, and kindness was gone. The Army had done its job. I cleaned up the mess and got ready for the next day.

Writing Prompt Two
A Fight

Write about a physical or emotional conflict. Think of a time when a course of events changed due to someone's word or preferably action. Have you been in a fight? What happened?

Tom Keating Biography

Tom Keating is a graduate of Stonehill College, where he studied for the priesthood at Holy Cross Seminary for five years before serving in the United States Army, including a tour of Vietnam from 1969 to 1970 as a conscientious objector. He served with the 47th Military History Detachment, then served with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Logistical Command, and Headquarters Company, US Army Vietnam, (USARV) also in Long Binh. His service earned him two Army Commendation Medal for his work. His memoir of his military experiences in the US Army, “Yesterday’s Soldier,” the story of his journey from Infantry Officer Candidate to conscientious objector, is available on Amazon.

After his military service, Tom attended Boston University and completed his Master’s degree in Education, and taught at the high school in Burlington, MA for eight years. A career in corporate communications and learning with companies like Wang Laboratories, Digital Equipment Corporation, IBM and EMC Corporation followed. He also produced news and public affairs broadcasts for local Boston television and national cable television programs.

Tom joined the AGAPE writing program for veterans at the Woods College of Advancing Studies at Boston College under the direction of Roxana Von Kraus. He attended the Joiner Institute Master Writing Program at the Joiner Institute Writers’ Workshop Festival held at the University of Massachusetts, Boston in 2017 and 2018.

Excerpts from his memoir have appeared in national anthologies such as “War Stories”, an anthology edited by Sean Davis, and “Shakedown” published by Warrior Writers Boston in their book “Complacency Kills”.

Tom and his wife, the artist Kathleen Keating, live in Massachusetts where he is an active member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and is committed to assisting veterans of all ages.

Writing Prompt from Zero Dark Thirty (Fall 2016) - First Day in Theater

Sometimes the first days are the worst days, as one Air Force veteran described during an interview how mortars hit Camp Bucca on his first full day assigned to guard duty in Iraq. Other times little memories, simple things stick out. An Army veteran who showed up for the Warrior Writers workshop at The Suffolk Poetry Center last Wednesday wrote about her first day back from Afghanistan. After reading what she’d written on the fly, she described noticing the smell of the rain at the airport. She put her face out of the window of the car as she left the airport, heading home.

Reading a poem by John Rodriguez published in a journal of war art and writing, Zero-Dark-Thirty, we discussed first experiences, how we describe them and how they take shape in our memories.

First Night in Country

by John Rodriguez

Packed like sweaty sardines
Body armor and helmets
Big men in tiny seats
The bird twists and turns
Corkscrewing to land
Mouth waters
Bile in the back of throat
Dinner wants to say hi.
Just heat and motion
Or nerves?

Ramp lowers, and escape.
Greeted by a hot blast of air
And darkness.
A sky black as all blackness
Punctured by the control tower lights and
Bright blue jet cones
Racing down the runway,
A roar and rumble fades,
Never leaves, never stops.

Guided to a tent, in briefing orientation
Welcomed by word of Wanat
Nine killed, twenty-seven wounded
A platoon decimated.

Walk to the pisser,
Alone with my thoughts
Confronted by mural to the fallen
”Living a life worthy of their sacrifice.”

John Rodriguez is an infantry officer in the United States Army. He served on active duty from 2006-2012 and currently serves in the Maryland National Guard. John served in Afghanistan as a rifle platoon leader and rifle company executive officer in Kunar Province from 2008-2009.

(Fall 2016, page 57-58)

Notice how Rodriguez splinters his language using the present tense, and sentence fragments, conveying some detachment in his memory of landing in Afghanistan. He writes in the frank way one might speak in conversation.

First Day in Theater is published by The Veteran Writing Project, founded by Ron Capps. You can read all of the old pdfs on the journal’s website, and the fall 2016 issue with Rodriguez’s poem here: https://odarkthirtydotorg.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/odt_4-4_web_version.pdf

At Warrior Writers workshops we generally start each prompt by reading a piece of flash fiction or a poem, like First Day in Theater, discuss it and then we write for 10 or 15 minutes straight. Often writing with a group helps discipline the mind to focus on the task at hand. But if you have the warewithal to write alone, maybe post whatever you come up with on Reddit.com/r/warriorwriters for friendly comments and revision suggestions.

Write about a first day: leaving on a deployment, a first day home, your first time jumping out of an airplane, launching off a carrier, cooking in the galley, on watch or patrol, whatever. Think about the sights, the smells. How did your senses react to the new environment? Maybe you’d rather write about the first day that pops to your mind. Go with it. Explore that memory. Set a timer to write for 15 minutes. Don’t stop.

Forget the Manuscript, Let's Just Write

Most things are best kept simple. Last week Warrior Writers kicked off a fall workshop series at Suffolk University with a discussion about manuscripts. But the most productive and uplifting part of the night was the opening writing prompt. So instead of talking about manuscripts, the rest of our workshops will be generative.

We're going back to the original workshop model. It's simple: we read some flash fiction or a poem, free write for 15 minutes, read aloud if we want, repeat. The point is not to polish turds, but to flush the floaters. We're not all writers, but those of us who enjoy writing improve by jettisoning a whole lot of shit. The moments of inspiration that emerge during these brief sessions of shit writing fertilize future focused efforts, broadsides and performances.

This site and associated social media handles offer a ballast against shit posters, a digital front for sensitive creations inspired by Warrior Writers. It is not a partisan space. It's not about being right or wrong. It's about expressing complexity with elegance.

While I like graffiti in some forms, the digital graffiti in my personal social media feed is clogging up my mind and wasting my time. So I'm stepping back, rethinking my efforts and focusing instead through this server, to publish promotions and creations for Warrior Writers.

Sure, I'll probably read Reddit, but I’m not ready to engage fully at the moment. We need editors to step up for the subreddit, mods to improve new posts up there and encourage those that step through that gauntlet (even through anonymity) to share their efforts.

This post here is either the beginning of something new, or a decent toward the delicate end of an otherwise lovely effort to connect through Warrior Writers in Boston.

Workshops will continue through the end of this year, and with cooperation from The Longfellow House, in the spring too. But we’re doing strictly generative workshops. The other steps can be done with professionals, through private editors and in MFA programs. The Warrior Writers workshops that I’ll continue organizing are purely for writing now.

War Poetry: workouts from “Carrying the Darkness” ten count

For the Warrior Writers workshop at The Old Oak Dojo in Boston on Wednesday, August 29, 2018, 6pm

Let’s create some fresh language. It’s important to focus throughout this process, not fall into a rabbit hole of research and distractions. You will make mistakes. You will write things wrong. So maybe do this exercise on paper to avoid imprinting your raw words into a computer’s memory.

You will get more out of this exercise if you explore your own memory, without digital performance enhancements. Revise and type up your flow later, if you like it.

Prepare to go analog. Get out your notepad and pen. Get a stopwatch that will beep after ten minutes, preferably not from your phone. Print this out, or better yet buy “Carrying the Darkness” and mark the following ten poems with the prompts. Put your phone away. Walk down to a local park or coffee shop and do this work on a table there, away from the kids, away from Reddit, away from the huddled masses yearning for your attention. Shut off distractions and focus on the art of textual communication.

The following ten poems are taken from "Carrying the Darkness" Edited by W. D. Ehrhart.

Read each poem, and then take about two minutes to reflect. If sitting there in silent contemplation bothers your body, if you’re feeling anxious about what to do with your hands while thinking, maybe dance in a large circle, sprint a hundred yards, do sixty push ups, make a cup of tea. Get your mind in the zone for each poem. Then write for ten minutes straight. You could do this with a stopwatch, or just write until you are out of words, until your last thought escapes.

For each of these prompts write your words, right out of your brainwaves. Write onto the paper. Don’t stop. Don’t lift the pen from your page. Just go.

Jan Barry - Green Hell, Green Death

1. Color Associations - Pick a color to repeat and explore your memory. Whenever you lose the image that you are conjuring, return to the color, and expand on its many shades. Think of this color as a metaphor for deeper truths as well, or as a stand-in for another idea. Explore the potential of this color, how and where it might appear.

Igor Bobrowsky - The Journey

2. Senses Other Then Sight - Write a scene using other senses than sight (flavor, scent, sound, feel). Try eliciting a moment, building a story from the ears inward. Listen. Taste. Touch. Smell. Bring a scene and story to life out of your mind instead of through your eyes.

John Balaban - The Guard at the Binh Thuy Bridge

3. Build Anticipation and Let it Ride - Develop a scene and slowly add action. In the end, do not the the tension go. Revel in the potential of whatever might or could happen. Use active language in describing the scene, like Balaban does: “billows creep across / his cooplike…” and hint at whatever dangers “boxbombs” might be floating.

Horace Coleman - Night Flare Drop, Tan Son Nhut

4. Layer Society with Appearance and Explosions - Describe a place and time you’ve been as though it were a historical moment. Think in generalities. What are others doing at the same time, a block away or on the other side of the globe?

Frank Cross - An Accident

5. Time in Action - Decisive events that occur in seconds, can expand out in both directions. There’s the aftermath. There’s the series of choices that initiated the action. Write about an accident. Focus on the moment it happened. Linger and describe what happened before and after.

W. D. Ehrhart - Time on Target

6. Cause and Effect - Explore the responsibility and ramifications of your work. Think about something you do or have done on a regular basis, and its effect on others. Every action creates a reaction. Can you enter the head of someone affected (positively or negatively) by something you did?

Christopher Howell - Memories of Mess Duty and the War

7. Excavate the Tedium - Think of your most simple duties on deployment. What did you do in the Mess Hall, or before going to bed. Did you have a routine in the morning that you kept? Describe some simple action, and build from there.

Bryan Alec Floyd - Captain James Leson USMC

8. Inverse Elegy - Write an elegy for an enemy or from an enemy’s perspective. The goal is not to dishonor the dead, but to complicate death and conflict. Put a death in your mind, and write about it from a foreign perspective.

Bruce Weigl - Amnesia

9. The Second Person - Address your reader. Write about an experience in the second person. Build a scene around your reader, and place them there. Make them the object of your own experience. Imagine seeing your younger self in a mirror and describe where you are, addressing yourself objectively.

Walter McDonald - The Retired Pilot to Himself

10. A Benediction - Remember something, like a moment or an image or something you did, and detach yourself from that memory. Write about that past time abstractly, and project your role in that moment against a backdrop of things the people around you were doing as well. Did you do anything different? Did you do something more, something less?

[Fair Use Clause] a) This is educational content, b) used to inspire new writing and comment, c) photographed in public from the original print, not digitally copied or transcribed. The Editor of this poetry collection, W. D. Ehrhart approved this post. If you enjoyed these poems, and would like to read more like them, order Carrying the Darkness from the publisher, Texas Tech University Press.

Every Line Breaks, and You Choose Where

It’s not all about breath, beats and cadence. When words combine to make a line sound perfect, altering the way a poem breaks on the page changes both the tone and meaning of a poem. Let’s talk about line breaks and prose poetry.

For Valentines Day the Boston Chapter of Warrior Writers gathered for a workshop at the Suffolk Poetry Center. Jose Diaz, an associate editor working with Consequence Magazine, brought prompts to get us thinking about the power of line breaks.

Starting with a prose-poem (or poetic essay) from Brian Turner’s new collection “The Kiss,” we wrote a freestyle responses to “The Evolution of a Kiss,” first printed in Guernica. The poem tracks with evolution from the kiss of ants (apparently a real thing) to “a step up, past the lizards,” the way birds feed their young, through foxes licking each others’ faces, to a specific kiss, a memory.

Our small group argued briefly over why any of this text matters. It’s all flowery nothings. So why write poetry at all? Why not just read Wikipedia? We’re not looking for info, but inspiration. It’s free form communication that also triggers ASMR.

For 10 minutes, we each wrote whatever came to us without putting down our pens, and read what we wrote aloud. The next step, for homework, would be to break whatever we each wrote down into lines, each line bringing a new punch, adding verve and intrigue, creating verses.

If this prompt inspires you to write something, share your rough draft for honest and encouraging comments on Reddit.com/R/WarriorWriters

Next Jose Diaz brought out two poems from Volume 9, the 2017 issue of Consequence Magazine. The 10th anniversary edition comes is out now, and available on consequencemagazine.org, alongside the 9th edition. There imprisoned behind a print paywall, you can find the real versions of these poems.

Condensing these poems into paragraphs, Diaz offered up bars of text for us to break down into new poems. Try it out. It’s mind altering to make your own thing from someone else’s text, and then to see the impact of the poet’s line breaks. Maybe someone will post a picture of the real poems from the book on Reddit, so you can see where you’re wrong and what changes.

Here are the two poems that Diaz brought without any breaks or added punctuation:

Mother Tongue
by Sokunthary Svay

Cambodian script resembles slurped noodles in Phnom Penh, immersed in orange curry peppers as red as blood and turmeric, golden as my cousin’s monastic robe. I wanted only noodle dinners for two weeks as a child. Mother sliced strips of beef like em dashes. They stiffened in the heat of her broth. Some characters look like the outline of my daughter’s pinky, sometimes inverted with a loop beneath or above, like her bangs curled upward. Every morning I detangle the knots she creates with her dreams, draw a line to part her hair. Once straightened, I braid her hair into sense. I unravel the curls of this script, trace family lines pronounced as my hip slanted as my eyes, looked like my mother’s sarong as it comes undone.

Prisoner
by Melissa Hem

you speak to me, in pungent air that waits, ready in the whispers living in teardrops, steady waiting to burst down from the clouds heavy you speak to me with your brown, weathered skin, and no reprieve from the day your fragile bones brittle while hands beg and pray the honesty behind shining eyes revealing a deadened gaze too many footsteps have marked the numbness of strangers that withers hope away you speak to me spinning red tracks against mud sticking between thick rubber tread speedy distance from memories that evoke the dead a foggy wake of exile and mass burial sites still, nothing is more haunting than the wind as it cries

Copy one of those chunks of text into a new document, and make your own breaks. Then go to consequencemagazine.org and buy your copy of issue 9, support the arts. The difference between your version and the poet’s might blow your mind. Because there is a right way to read a poem. Line breaks (at their best) can add purpose and meaning to text.