Peter M Bourret, a combat Marine who served in Vietnam during 1967 and 1968, shares with the reader his insights about the war experience. The reader will quickly realize the profound impact of war on a twenty-year-old who discovered the horrors of war. The author's powerful and hard-hitting poetry lets the reader peek behind killing's curtain. It is a glimpse that will enlighten, but it is not for those who enjoy fluff. This fasten-your- seat-belt experience will help the reader begin to discover what General Sherman meant when he referred to war as Hell. A reading of this book of poetry...

When I write poetry, I am not concerned with finishing a poem in one sitting. I write down as much as is floating through me: a phrase, an idea, or several lines. Eventually, I go back to these tidbits and grow them, and they blossom into poems, but only when they are ready and I am ready. There have been times when I have been taking a relaxing bath and words and phrases would begin floating down like snowflakes, and I would jump out of the tub and run to my computer to type these ideas which, in this case, turned into a finished poem, competed in a single sitting; it felt like I was the...

Peter M. Bourret taps into his experience as a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War, offering the reader a glimpse into the crucible of war in his first novel. Three Joss Sticks In The Rain is much more than a war story in the traditional sense. The tragic events of one day during the 1968 Tet Offensive know no boundaries. A gone-wrong ambush profoundly impacts the lives of four major characters, who serve dual roles as narrators, offering the audience four subjective views of reality. Two of the narrators, an eighteen-year-old Vietnamese woman and her older brother--both members of the...