FOUR DISPOSITIONS OF WAR
FOUR DISPOSITIONS OF WAR
By M.J. Mobley
Poetry - Paperback
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Poetry from a US Veteran
This poetry collection explores the competing nature of the soldier’s identity found in a civilization that worships and fetishize the myth of the warrior, serving as both an instruction manual for those with no military experience whatsoever and as confirmation for Soldiers the world over that their creation was inevitable, their use foreordained. Each poem and work of flash fiction elucidates the steps in which soldiers are created followed by their subsequent lives in the aftermath of their utilization as warfighters. The work demonstrates the ways in which society may turn a blind eye to the wars around them, to the destruction taking place in their name, to the layers of emotions that define the identity of the modern warfighter and his search for something more. The work gives voice to the struggle to understand actions before, during, and after combat both for the participant soldiers and for those far removed from the military fray while seeking to rewrite the ways in which we understand modern civilization and its continual march towards destruction.
M.J. Mobley is a writer who currently calls East Tennessee home. A former U.S. Army Infantryman and Ranger-qualified paratrooper with multiple combat deployments, Mobley served as both an enlisted man and as a commissioned officer before leaving the service at the rank of Major. He now considers himself a Tolstoyan-Pacifist whose spiritual practices include Christian mysticism and adherence to the Perennial Philosophy of religious thought. His previous work has appeared in Oh Dark Thirty, Bridge Eight, Tahoma Literary Review, and F(r)iction, among others. His one-act play The Recruiters recently underwent a staged reading in Salem, Massachusetts and his debut novel, As They Were, was recently released in the U.S. and abroad. Mobley now spends as much time as he can escaping the modern world by barefoot running, hiking, and practicing minimalist camping with John Milton, his Border Collie mix, in the mountains and forests near his home.