DENVER | Vietnam War veteran Barry Stevens writes poetry to overcome distressing memories.
There was a time when he was a combat corpsman in 1968 and carried a U.S. Marine across his shoulders as shells exploded around them in Vietnam.
The Marine was injured and Stevens was hauling him to safety.
It was Stevens’ job in the U.S. Navy to try and save the man’s life, but a stray shell hit the man in the back while Stevens was carrying him. The man’s body acted like a shield, saving Stevens’ life instead.
Stevens took shelter, set the Marine down and watched him take his last breath.
He began writing poems in 1990 about that vivid war memory, and others, to cope with his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Over the years, he’s come to appreciate the cathartic quality of verse.
“I put it all on paper and I can walk away from it,” said Stevens, 68, who lives on the border of Aurora and Centennial. “If I want to go back, I just have to pick up the paper. But once you put it down, it’s out of your mind and you don’t have to dwell on it anymore.”
Stevens showcased his poetry at the Creative Arts Festival this month at the Department of Veterans Affairs Hospital in Denver. He was among about 60 other military veterans from Colorado who participated in the festival, which included a performing arts piece and an art gallery viewing held Feb. 25 and 26 with paintings, sculptures, 3-D art, photographs and wood modeling. About a quarter of all participants were Aurorans.
The annual event, now in its 25th year, was a way for veterans to express themselves creatively and to gain self confidence in their artistic abilities, said Crystal Black, recreation therapist for the VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System.
The veterans worked for about a year on 85 art pieces for the Visual Arts Gallery exhibit, she said. VA officials doled out honorary ribbons to artwork and performances that were particularly meaningful or creative.
“The competition allows them to see how much they’ve grown throughout the year,” Black said. “They love the opportunity to show their art to the public and to be so proud about something they’ve worked so hard and diligently on.”
The annual showcase has transformed veterans, especially those who have a hard time reconciling memories of their time in service, said Brenda Thornton, also a recreation therapist who helped organize the event.
“I’ve seen some people come in and their posture completely changes,” she said.
Some veterans were physically slouched and introverted when Thornton approached them months ago to submit their artwork to the showcase. She’s had to gently nudge them along and encourage them to show their art as an extension of their personalities.
After some persuasion by Thornton, one veteran submitted a painting of a man’s shoe stepping through a wooden door to symbolize the act of taking a difficult step to somewhere unfamiliar.
That veteran and others who once slouched, now stand upright and proud of the work they’ve produced, Thornton said.
“The arts provide an opportunity to really do some self-reflection, and a lot of healing and recovery happens through that process,” she said.
Aurora resident and U.S. Army veteran Megan Davis has used artwork for decades to help cope with emotional struggles. She began painting with watercolors at 6 years old, and has added knitting, bead work, pottery and crocheting to her artistic repertoire over the years.
She entered the Army as a single mother and served in the Gulf War in 1990 and 1991 as a graphic illustrator. The uncertainty of war, combined with the time away from her daughter, then 4 years old, was emotionally draining.
“You live day to day not knowing what’s going to happen,” she said.
Art has been a way for Davis to escape difficult feelings of her time in the Army.
“It’s very calming, away from the chaos, it cuts everything off,” she said.
She submitted two paintings to the Creative Arts Festival and won first place for a watercolor portrait of her daughter, now 26, wearing a Santa hat with cherry-red lips puckered up in a kiss.
For other veterans, music is their preferred form of therapy.
Dennis Hurlburt, an Aurora resident who spent a decade as a drummer in the U.S. Marine Corps band, performed a drum solo at the Creative Arts Festival this year for which he won an award.
“It gets a little of the frustration and aggression out,” he said. “It’s very therapeutic.” He and three other Aurora veterans started a band called “Vets in Tune,” which has traveled around the Denver metro area playing for veterans and at nursing homes. The group took home awards at the Creative Arts Festival last year.
Hurlburt traveled around the world with the Marine Corps band from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. He played the drums in California, Hawaii, Australia and Japan. He played for movie stars, presidents and even for the Queen of England.
Music helps Hurlburt forget the internal turmoil he experienced in the Marine Corps, especially during his time in Okinawa, Japan. He was hospitalized there and then transferred to the Fitzsimons Army Medical Center for 8 months, after which doctors determined he had schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder and PTSD. He was discharged from the Marine Corps for his mental health disabilities.
Hurlburt has had a passion for music since he was young, one that has lifted him up during the worst times in his life. In his high school yearbook is a quote he inscribed from the English poet John Keats: “Let me have music dying, and I seek no more delight.”
“That’s the truest statement,” Hurlburt said. “Without music, I don’t survive too well.”
Reach reporter Sara Castellanos at 720-449-9036 or sara@aurorasentinel.com.
Very good article about a much needed and worthwhile showcase for veteran’s talents.