United States
I spent fourteen years in the U.S. Army, beginning with deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and finishing at a desk inside the Pentagon. Today, I live in the Northeast Tennessee with my wife, children, and a red-tick hound named Camo. I write poetry and essays about the enduring nature of war and the human experience.
As a workshop facilitator, I create spaces for people to speak truth and tell their story, with special care for those from communities who aren't usually heard. It's not about me, it's about the community we can create with language.
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Some feedback from Community Building Art Works workshop participants:
"Thank you for providing the space to be real and heard and supported, Ben. I can face the rest of my day now."
"Thank you, Ben. Your gentle passion for poetry and people pervades your work. I always finish feeling uplifted, seen, heard, and encouraged."
"I hope these workshops with Ben continue. He brings a sense of gentleness and safety for the sometimes painful places we visit in our writing. He is a good companion on the journey. His poems and prompts are thought provoking and have taken me in directions I didn't expect. Thank you Ben!!"
"Thank you, Ben. This session and prompt dovetailed beautifully with what I’ve been working on personally for a few days. Thank you for creating the space to coalesce my thoughts and feelings. Cant wait for next month."
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My written work appears in the anthology, "Our Best War Stories" published by Middle West Press, and in Army University Press, The Wrath-Bearing Tree, The Ekphrastic Review, and Vita Brevis, among other publications.
Awards include first place in the 2019 Heroes’ Voices National Poetry Contest, and finalist in the 2020 Col. Darron L. Wright Memorial Writing Awards.
Reach out to me at [email protected], or find me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!
Afghanistan rides in across a pristine sky like some bare-chested western god throwing bolts of lightning, except this time he's hurling leftover rockets from Soviet days until he slams one into a dusty path on Forward Operating Base Salerno and it bursts into a thousand fragments where a twe
Sunday Morning: the Market in East Rashid What are we to make of the single brown horse carrying a slim and neat-bearded rider bareback, his thighs gripping the animal's flanks firmly, sandals slapping his heels with every stride, as the horse gallops through the dust of a market at midday?
On the Fourth Tuesday of every month, I teach a writing workshop for Veterans, Family Members, the Military-Adjacent Community, and others (really, anyone!). We focus on a short poem and generate our own writing in a non-judgmental, positive community that encourages expression as a form of healing and empowerment. No experience necessary - you can sign up at: https://communitybuildingartworks.org/events/full-schedule-of-events/
Video Poetry
Ben Weakley reads "Checkpoint", a poem about a fraction of a moment in the Iraq War and the moments from which war is made every day in places all over the world. Music by Abby Weakley. "Checkpoint" was originally published by Wrath-Bearing Tree in 2020.
Interviews
"If you know a servicemember or veteran right now, ask them to tell their story and just listen." I first met Ben Weakley when he participated in an online workshop in poetry I taught with the Armed Services Arts Partnership (ASAP), which provides free creative classes to military servicemembers, veterans and their spouses.
Books
Our Best War Stories: Prize-winning Poetry & Prose from the Col. Darron L. Wright Memorial Awards [Lyke, Christopher, Blake, F.S., Brown, Randy, Dixon, David, Lund, Michael, Hubbartt, Scott, Chandler, Eric, McPadden, Ray, Farria, Dewaine, Klempan, Travis] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Our Best War Stories: Prize-winning Poetry & Prose from the Col.
Awards
Editors of Chicago-based non-profit literary journal Line of Advance have announced the winning entries for the 5th Annual Col. Darron L. Wright Memorial Writing Awards. The awards annually recognize excellence in prose and poetry by U.S. military service members and veterans-and, starting this year, military family members.
Heroes' Voices is pleased to present this sampling of poems written by veterans. Many of these poems were written in our Poetry Workshops. If you are a veteran and would like to share poems or stories that you have written, please contact Heroes' Voices. Stop. End war.Fight for... for what?
Poetry
Checkpoint The car came from nowhere, it came from everywhere - white blur and tire squall,a four-door payload of heat and pressure and steel. When it is over, there is justthe tinkle of falling brass and a manslumpedin a pool of broken glass and coolant on hot asphalt,calm as a corpse.