Guard the Dead: Poems of War and Honor

From the author of Gigs and The Reservist, John Davis's new poetry collection Guard the Dead explores the consequences of war and the struggles of the human spirit to endure. As a former Coast Guard veteran, Davis brings an authentic voice to his verses on military life, violence, trauma, and the perseverance of love amidst unimaginable hardship.

Populated with vivid imagery and unflinching honesty, Davis's poems transform the personal into the universal. We are immersed in his haunting recollections of combat, fragmented psyches, and the bittersweet mundanities of life after serving in the military. Yet his uncompromising gaze also finds moments of surprising tenderness-the hand of a lover, the first steps of a child, the simple joys of the natural world that surrounds us.

Whether chronicling the anguish of a bullet's journey through the brain or a crab's mating dance on the ocean floor, Guard the Dead demonstrates Davis's remarkable ability to render both the beauty and brutality of our existence in language alternately brutal and exquisite. This is a collection that will leave no reader unmoved as it roots into the deepest ranges of human experience and emerges, shaken yet resolute, as testament to our flawed, profound and ever-persisting world.

Unforgettable and essential, Guard the Dead is a profound addition to the literature of war and survival from the pained voice of an American poet.