Review of Special Operation by Mark Pawlak

Generally, I try to avoid political poems as well as anti-war poems. Not because they don’t have an important place in those overlapping genres—they do. Or because they can’t effectuate changes in belief systems with their emotional and sometimes rational appeal—they can. But even so, overcome with their own self-importance or consumed with the certainty of true believers, the poets, who write them, usually fail. Brilliant exceptions like Sigfried Sassoon (First World War), Wilfred Owen (First World War), and Michael Casey (Vietnam War) prove the rule. Therefore, when confronted with reviewable collections of this verse type, I walk, nay, I run in the other direction. But not today. For more of my review of Special Operation go here: https://dougholder.blogspot.com/2026/04/special-operation-by-mark-pawlak.html