European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 10, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                A desert poet chooses the pen Over the sword Story and photo by Randy Pruitt staff writer if All hell Breaks Loose in the Gulf Region maj. Garth. Bloxham will huddle with his commander to synchronize action on the desert Battlefield. A a a. For now though he s waging a different War one he is. Handily winning. Bloxham s secret weapon is poetry.,. A he uses language to defeat the desert  loneliness monotonous food a a Warrior s. Immediate enemies. I be also plies words to capture the Stark Beauty of the arabian desert its exotic creatures and colourful people. Bloxham is Good Nat redly referred to As a Quot desert  while there is no rhyme in his poetry there Are plenty of not so rambo reasons a combat Soldier would choose the pen Over the sword. Quot i think most soldiers Are romantic Quot says the . Army operations officer with he co 2nd brigade 24th inf div. A Quot there is a Side of All of us that is rough and Tough and i think internally we balance that with a softer inside. There is a need to overcome the harshness of an a a environment the harshness of our life and we Balanc e that with . Bloxham in t alone. Since operation desert shield began More than 100 service members have penned poems and mailed them to 1 he stars and stripes. Although it is newspaper policy not to publish poetry an exception was made in the Case of Bloxham and others whose work is featured on the following pages. Quot i think there is an awful lot of poetry going Back in letters to families Quot says  admits he Seldom reads poetry and never wrote a. Line before being dispatched to the Middle East Quot but i be a always written Down my thoughts mostly during. Turbulent times and periods of personal  Bloxham a 16-year army Veteran whose unit is out of fort Stewart ga., says he began  a special kinship. A with the desert  after he arrived in saudi Arabia. Those feelings inspired him to write bedouins. A Quot their Way of life is in a real state of change. This has nothing to do with our presence but the bedouin Way of life has been seriously challenged Quot he says. Quot the saudi government has encouraged the bedouins to move to the cities so they can become stable. The bedouin Way of life is under serious threat As civilization . Bloxham says soldiers Are in Many ways like the. Bedouins. ,. Quot As we adapt to the desert i saw the great parallel to. The threat to my Way of life that i had just left Quot he says. Quot my roots had been torn up we were both living in tents both picking up and moving with the desert winds one Hundred years front now what will be the True Mark a the passing of the bedouin or the passing of us in the Sand in the final statement the wind will cover both our  a Bloxham found another parallel when he visited a a nearby medieval fort dating Back to the ottoman Empire. Quot Back then the spice route came through this area quote says. Quot foreign armies were Here and we be repeated that somewhat. Now it s Oil not spices and the patterns repeat themselves Bloxham who has spent about 1 50 Days in saudi Arabia says living in the desert forces one to reassess one s life. Quot you get out Here and you ask yourself what is the meaning Why am i out Here what am i doing is the army for me you go through this questioning period Quot he says. Quot i think All of us do this and you get Back to the basics. You Start getting Down to what you Are really about inside what s important because that s what you dwell  Bloxham says he directs most of his poetry to his Wyite Leslie who lives  a ga., with their two children. Maj. Garth Bloxham Quot there is a need to overcome the harshness of an environment the harshness of our life and we balance that with  Bloxham holds master s degrees in financial and. Personnel management. Quot i be undergone some kidding but think it writing poetry is part of the love hate that s in us All Quot he says. Quot part of what draws us to being military is the need for that excitement in our life but we have to balance the harshness of our environment and what we re doing Here. Different people find different answers. A lot of us turn to love letters or letters Home. It s the same thing putting a 1 thought on paper or a poem to Home. We Veall got to find a path or you just go Over the  Bloxham carries proof around his neck that the Soldier is indeed a romantic figure. He wears a p38 can opener that belonged to his father a Cai . His dad mailed it to him Only recently with a note. Quot a am a pah . Army Issue it an opener Quot it begins. Quot i was present on the beaches of Normandy the battle1 it it i the bulge the crossing of the Rhine the liberation of Buchenwald Chip  in Korea the Batt Loul old Baldy and pork chop i fill and the let offensive of 1 m>8., treat me with respect and i will serve you . A. Quot i think this captures the oth or Side of my father first. Of All that he kept that cart opener Quot Bloxham says. So it is with Spei Ial reverence that Bloxham w Ici ring dog tag Sand the tarnished can opener watches the came herders wander through the Camps filled with modern military hardware. I in and the nomads alike share the sacred Sarui in this an it sent place the tribes i  i he Valley of a thousand . A Paradox. An inspiration. A poem. January 10, 1001 stripes Magazine