Poetic Destiny by Coincidence
Share Article Coincidence is an event that might have been arranged although it was really accidental. It’s random destiny. Destiny is an event that will inevitably happen in the future like Death.
I was waiting for Christina, a 50-year-old Belgium born French teacher currently teaching at Peter Rabbit in Greenland for a day trip to a floating village and mangrove forest near Tonle Sap Lake. She’d suggested the idea the previous evening after seeing Angkor Wat.
Kun, the owner of Jasmine GH, walked to the table with a man. “He is going with you.”
Great.” We introduced ourselves, “Hi, I'm Brian,” he said.
“Nice to meet you.”
A soft-spoken man with piercing eyes, gentle manner and laughing, Brian told his family history.
“This is the short version of a long story. My grandfather’s father came from Switzerland. He was a preacher. He was persecuted and escaped to Italy. He returned and was beheaded. His son took up the cause and was also persecuted. He escaped to Holland. His family eventually moved to England, then Scotland then Ireland. During the potato famine they managed to get to New York and settled in Arkansas. It was the Civil War and life was hard. They moved west and eventually settled in Fresno, California where I was raised.”
We rolled through dry flat countryside to the end of a long dusty road. We jumped on motorcycles to reach small boats moored in shallow water. We left land gliding through marshes toward the Kampong Pluck Village. Christina asked Brian about his life.
“I am a poet traveling the world for a year on the Amy Lowell Traveling award.”
I turned in surprise. “What is your last name?”
“Turner.”
I laughed. “Sure. I know you. Last October when I lived in Hanoi with a family of bats in a palm tree I read your “Home Fires” essay in The New York Times after you visited the Bedlam hospital in London. I wrote a piece about becoming a ghost after returning from Vietnam. Your essay generated many comments from diverse voices, veterans, health care professionals and the general public. It was great.”
“It's important to give these people voices,” he said. "I wrote seven poetry books before submitting Here Bullet.”
Over lunch he talked about his book, Here Bullet published by Alice James Books. Brian served in Bosnia and a year tour in Iraq before returning to the states in 2004.
“I wrote the poems in Iraq. I worked from my notebooks to create the manuscript from November through March 2005. I submitted it. It won the Beatrice Hawley Award. Later, an anonymous person nominated me for the Amy Lowell award. There were 360 poetry books in the competition. One day I received a phone call from the law offices representing the estate. They said my book was selected for the Amy Lowell Scholarship. I was amazed.”
Brian received his MFA in writing from the University of Oregon, my alma matter.
“You’re a famous poet. Congratulations. And here we are, two writers, two veterans and UO graduates meeting on a small boat near a floating village in Cambodia. Long live the creative geniuses.”
Brian reached Cambodia via England, Switzerland, Italy, Turkey and Thailand. He’d travel to Vietnam, Morocco, Portugal, Ireland and Bosnia.
His second book of poetry, entitled Phantom Noise, was published in April 2010 and shortlisted for the T.S. Elliot Prize.
The three us shared stories, explored a village, a local primary school, enjoyed seafood along the river and traversed the amazing mangrove water world forest, ala Monet.
Joyful destiny smiled.
