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MWSA Review
Flow, Flow, Flow Your Blood: Sing-along War Songs by Paul Hellweg is a book that incorporates dark humor dressed in well-known nursery rhymes. As the title suggests, the book makes light of serious and painful subjects: injury, death, tragedy, and suffering. The author uses parody for each of the poems, changing the words to songs we learned in grade school. This can serve as a coping mechanism to process the terrors and horrors of war. Each entry is paired with a black and white photograph from various wars, some of them quite graphic. The author includes a content warning on the back of the book regarding the photos, which can be distressing or disturbing.
While this book isn’t classic poetry and might not be considered entertaining, it does open the dialogue for discussion of national policy and care of returning military veterans. In a departure from his previous poetry book—When Eagles Vie with Valkyries, which was awarded a gold medal from the Military Writers Society of America—Hellweg, a Vietnam veteran, uses caustic wit and bitter irony in this volume. This will likely appeal to those who have served in the armed forces, but may provoke discomfort for civilians and possibly offend families whose loved ones died or were injured in war. It may also provoke serious thought as to what is required of service members who are deployed to war zones.
Review by Betsy Beard
Author's Synopsis
Flow, Flow, Flow Your Blood reimagines familiar nursery rhymes through a darker lens. With biting irony, Paul Hellweg juxtaposes the sing-song rhythms of childhood with the stark realities of war—violence, loss, and lingering trauma.
Sample Poems:
WOUNDED
Flow, flow, flow your blood
Gently in a stream
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
Life is but a scream
Flow, flow, flow your blood
Gently in a stream
If you see an IED
Don’t forget to scream (Aaagh!)
YANKEE DOODLE
Yankee Doodle went to war
Riding in a Humvee
Stuck a peace sign on his cap
And called it all baloney
Chorus:
Yankee Doodle keep it up
Yankee Doodle dandy
Mind the mines and watch your step
And with the guns be handy
Content Warning: This book contains real-life war photographs that depict graphic violence, injury, and deceased individuals and may be disturbing or distressing to some readers. Viewer discretion is advised.
Format(s) for review: Paper or Kindle
Review genre: Poetry—Poetry Book
Pages/Word count: 59 / 2,174