Raindrops gently fell in the silence of the night.
Clouds gathered in the east, and I felt my soul stir.
I stood still like a well-worn shack amidst the solitude of the open plains.
The air electrified as we anticipated the quenching storm, waiting for the rain to engulf the soil.
Neville Johnson is a UK veteran of Iraq, Afghanistan and Northern Ireland. Follow him here. Listen to the Savage Wonder podcast episode with him here.
Sweeping Leaves in the Wind, Good Soldiers Don’t Cry, and Alone in a Crowded Room by the Veterans Collective, featuring selections from Neville Johnson.
In Love…&War: The Anthology of Poet Warriors by Dead Reckoning Collective, featuring selections from Neville Johnson.
This week on the Savage Wonder Podcast…
Jason Pizzarello is a Connecticut-based playwright and co-founder of Stage Partners, a digital licensing house for new plays (yourstagepartners.com). He is currently developing his plays Lost Near Daytona, Found (Semi-finalist, Arts in the Armed Forces Bridge Award) with The Tank /dir. Meghan Finn, and his outdoor immersive children’s play Off the Trail (grant recipient, Frances R. Dewing Foundation) with CT’s Stamford Museum & Nature Center. Other plays include: Bethel Park Falls (Everyday Inferno Theatre Company/NYC Central Park, published with Playscripts); After People Like You (Blue Riders at Classic Stage; Finalist, AITAF). He has also developed his writing with Soho Rep Writer/ Director Lab, Irondale Ensemble, Fordham Alumni Theatre Company, HERE Arts Center, The Flea Theater's Pataphysics, New Group's Playwriting Workshop, and the Veterans Writing Workshop. Over thirty of his plays for young actors are published and have been performed over 3,000 times in all 50 states and in over 25 countries, including a Norwegian and Bengali translation. When he’s not writing, he proudly serves as a logistics officer with the New York Army National Guard, and is a veteran of the war in Afghanistan/ Operation Enduring Freedom.
Jason's military-themed drama BRAT won VetRep's inaugural full-length playwriting competition. BRAT is the story of a mother and son - both veterans of the forever war in Afghanistan - as they struggle to reintegrate into the civilian world and mend their broken relationship. Jake signed up to follow in his mother’s footsteps, but doesn’t get what he expected when he returns home to confront everything, and everyone, that’s been waiting for him.
Our judges said the following about BRAT: "Mysterious, emotionally sound, haunting — it’s also clearly a very personal piece. The language is lean and spare, the opening is terrific, and the last scene is gripping."
Follow Jason here.