& Ink

John Stevens Berry & the Trials of a Poet

The Platte, Nor the Mekong Not a four acre farm to provide one meal a day.

Just the flash and blaze of lightning and a hay stack.

Still, I slap leather which isn’t there for my pistol, which isn’t there, for reassurance, which, for a split second, i sn’t there.

Corn fields, not r ice paddies.

Steel irrigation systems, not ba gia* with her ancient legs walking in place on treadles, and handle arms made of bamboo to move water.

After war, you are never quite where y ou belong.

*grandmother

Although born in Iowa, John’s roots run deep in Nebraska with a father from Wayne and mother from Arapahoe. His maternal grandfather was a lawyer in Beaver City, and his uncle practiced law in McCook. In his younger years, John listened as the two argued cases. A cousin and a great uncle also practiced law in Sioux City, Iowa, and another great uncle practiced law in

Wayne and was president of the Nebraska Bar Association.

John began writing poems and short stories in junior high. Upon graduating from high school, he attended New Mexico Militar y Institute.

“I got some nice awards for some short stories I wrote there,” he said. “I’ve always enjoy ed writing.”

Next, he studied at Stanford University and wrote for its humor magazine, The Stanford Chaparral . He enrolled in creative writing workshops including courses taught by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Wall ace Stegner.

Some of his poems, essays, and stories were published during his time at Stanford. Twice, he received awards from the Academy of American Poets and appeared in an anthology of college poets. In May 1960, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English and, having been in the Army’s Reserve Officer Training Corps, became a second lieutenant in the infantry.

However, he was ordered not to report for duty until the following January. In the interim, he enrolled in the University of Iowa’s Writer’s Workshop for the fall semester that year.

After six months active duty in Missouri, he studied for a year at Sorbonne University in Paris. Returning from there and wanting to study law, he attended Northwestern University for three years on the advice of a lawyer who said that it was the place to learn to try cases. Throughout this time, he served in the army reserve and reported for annual exercises at bases in Kansas and Missouri. He also squeezed in a trip to Europe with h is mother.

When he returned to the states again, John offered to go to active duty with the army as long as he was assigned to Vietnam to serve as defense counsel. His conditions met, he joined the Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps, which provides legal services to the army and its personnel. In Vietnam, John became a foreign claim s officer.

“I had to go into the villages with an interpreter and talk to the village chiefs and find out what damage had been done and pay what restitution was allowed,” explained John, who was also chief defense counsel for 80,000 troops.

Fo reign Claims

To pay a Vietnames e national, loss must be collateral, not comb at related.

As if anything wasn’t related to everything in this fucking war

So: about $40 in piasters, solatium for the 15-year-old k id you lost, & a certificate & a bag of rice & a bag with cigarette s and candy. & that’s all we could do. All. We . Could. Do.

“Some JAG officers sat behind steel desks,” John said. “I went into t he field.”

Because Vietnam was a fluid checkerboard of friendly and enemy forces, John packed a .45 caliber pistol wherever he traveled. His interpreter was heavily armed as well, and the driver had a grenade launcher stowed beneath his seat. The weapons didn’t go unused.

Easter Sunday, 1969 Angel Wing Cambo dian border.

Brief fight.

Other guy dies.

Is t hat Easter?

Do we live became someone else bled?

Don’t know.

But it brings a man to his knees.

Turning to civilian law when he returned to the US with a Bronze Star and other medals including some from the Republic of Vietnam John worked for a New York firm for a year before returning to the Midwest and opening Berry Law. At first, he represented veterans pro bono, establishing a large base of thankful clients. Today, Berry Law employees 120 people with offices in Lincoln, Omaha, and Council Bluffs. John now lives with his wife, artist Margaret Berry, in Lincoln where they raised sons John Jr., Chris, and Cory and daughte r Laura.

John’s first book, a collection of poems titled The Blackness of Snow, was wellreceived by critics and earned awards from the Academy of American Poets.

His next book, Those Gallant Men , is about his successful defense of nine Green Berets charged with murder in Vietnam.

His third book had its beginnings in a radio talk show John hosted on KLIN from 1994 to 1997. During one particular show, Caril Ann Fugate talked about her request for a pardon. She had been sentenced to life to prison in 1958 for accompanying mass murderer Charles Starkweather when he killed 10 people in Nebraska and Wyoming. With her sentence reduced to 30-50 years in 1973, she was paroled three years later. In 2014, John and Linda Battisti co-wrote The Twelfth Victim , laying out the case that Fugate should be pardoned because she had been an unwilling companion of St arkweather.

“I’m absolutely convinced that she’s innocent,” asserted John, whose stance was not viewed favorably by some Nebraskans, as occasionally expressed through death threats. “I figured if the Viet Cong wouldn’t do it to me, these people s ure can’t.”

The book was made into a TV series for Showtime though this heightened profile and appearances before the Board of Pardons have not resulted in a pardon for Fugate (who now has the last name of Claire).

Twyla Hansen, Nebraska State Poet from 2013-2018, met John whom she calls Steve when she worked at Nebraska Wesleyan University. Taking some English literature classes on the campus, she met the lawyer when he would hang out there i n the 1980s.

“I didn’t know he was an author and didn’t know he was a poet,” Hansen said of their early encounters. “I couldn’t believe how powerful his poems were they packed a real punch. His poems about PTSD are spare, powerful, and well-crafted. Foot Soldier is an amazing introduction to h is writing.”

Permissive Travel Orde rs (partial)

…… Once, a young lieutenant was trying to get me Onto a chopper. They were loadin g body bags.

“The captain has permissive tra vel orders.”

The bored specialist nodded at the body bags.

“Yeah, these guys g ot ‘em too.”

Karen Gettert Shoemaker, author of The Meaning of Names , also refers to John as Steve. They met at Larksong, a community of writers that she founded in Linc oln in 2020.

“His poems are so heartfelt and he has a really keen eye for people, places and things,” Shoemaker said. “I was surprised how intimate and vulnerable his poems are and how clearly he can see othe r people.”

The E nd (partial)

No hourglass, no compass I navigate by the stars,

Guiding my journey t o its end.