Had the pleasure of meeting Seth Brady Tucker and a few of the Longleaf group at the Longleaf Writers Conference booth at AWP this year. One of the best parts of AWP is discovering and rediscovering communities and books. Right now, I’m enjoying “Beautiful Boys in Brodie Helmets,” the first poem in Tucker’s We Deserve the Gods We Ask For (Givel Press):

“We hole up until shelling is over, ducked
in cover, held by frozen earth, beneath
rail ties, and even desperately under shovels….”

Tucker, an army veteran, allows his readers to share in a series of singular moments that would be impossible to fully comprehend for those of us who have never known military service and/or war. Taking us back to WWI and the boys in “brodie helmets,” the speaker juxtaposes the pastoral with shelling and last breaths, an unforgiving landscape, a “frozen earth.” The reader cannot help but reflect on the sacrifice and terror these boys suffered and so many have suffered through WWI, WWII, Vietnam, Iraq… and what they would think of the current world order. It is impossible to know the courage it takes for a person to give such sacrifice. It is impossible to know the courage it takes to give voice to this sacrifice. But then to find such lyricism and movement in the words so to draw the reader into such a terrifying moment and hold us there. If you have not yet read Tucker’s We Deserve the Gods We Ask For, you can read it now, HERE.

About We Deserve the Gods We Ask For

Winner of the Gival Press Poetry Award, “We Deserve the Gods We Ask For” traverses the space between the hero and the hero who has been left behind. Tucker chases the concept of what it is to be a hero (and expands his deep printed footsteps in war literature) by interspersing this collection with persona narratives of soldiers and veterans while deftly managing the comedic and surreal in his investigations of comic heroes like Wile E. Coyote and Popeye. READ MORE

About Seth Brady Tucker

Seth Brady Tucker is executive director of the Longleaf Writers’ Conference and he teaches creative writing at the Lighthouse Writers’ Workshop and at the Colorado School of Mines near Denver. He is senior prose editor for the Tupelo Quarterly Review, is originally from Wyoming, and once served as an Army Paratrooper with the 82ndAirborne in Iraq. He is a multi-genre writer and his work recently appeared in the Los Angeles Review, Driftwood, Copper Nickel, Birmingham Poetry Review, and others. READ MORE

About Openings

Openings is a recommendation column for Eckleburg readers, featuring fantastic books with fantastic openings, where readers first meet intriguing characters, settings and moments in which the mind can explore what is and what might be. Explore more great Openings with us at Eckleburg.

Rae Cline

Rae Cline is the author of PRECIOUS UGLY, a debut novel (coming August 18, 2026 from 7.13 Books). She is also the author of the short story collection The Indefinite State of Imaginary Morals. Her stories, essays, and prose poetry have appeared in The Paris Review, McSweeney’s, and more. She earned an M.A. in Writing from John Hopkins University and an M.F.A. in Fiction and Creative Nonfiction from American University. A teacher for thirty-five years, she taught writing and literature at the secondary level as well as at her alma maters, the International Writing Program at Iowa State University, and other campuses. She is the founding editor of Eckleburg, where she writes the Openings column, and the founder of the Warm Words Project, a homeless and domestic violence outreach initiative. Born in Ohio, she now splits her time between New York City and the Gulf of Mexico. PRECIOUS UGLY is now available for preorder. Read more at raecline.com.