Funds for Bookworm are provided in part by Lannin Foundation.

You are a human animal.

You are a very special breed.

Or you are the only animal.

Who can think, who can reason, who can read.

From KCRW, Santa Monica,

I'm Michael Silverblatt,

and this is Bookworm.

I'm very honored to have as my guest

two poets,

Bruce Weigel and Brian Turner.

Bruce Weigle is the author most recently of Declenchen in the village of Chun Long.

It's published by Ossebel Press.

And Brian Turner is the author of Here Bullet.

It's published by Alice James Books.

Now, these two poets are poets who have served in different American wars.

Bruce Weigel served in the American War in Vietnam,

and Brian Turner served in the American War in Vietnam, and Brian Turner served in Iraq.

And I wanted to begin by asking you your perception of what's happened to the poetry of witness.

Because this is not writing from a distance.

This is the writing of people who have served in the armed forces

and writing that has a point of view for the reader to discover, and it is about witness as defined

...