Steve Mason and The Wall Within
español -
Steve Mason was a decorated Vietnam War veteran whose poem “The Wall Within” became a powerful voice of healing at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial dedication in 1984.
Steve Mason, born in Brooklyn in 1940, served as a U.S. Army captain during the Vietnam War. After returning home, he became a poet and advocate for peace, channeling the trauma and complexity of war into verse that resonated deeply with veterans and their families.
I met him in 1976 at the India Street Poets Theater gatherings at what was called the India Street Artist's Colony at Five Points in San Diego. Those at the readings knew him as Vito and his contributions to those evenings stood out from his strength of character and the demons that were residing in him that echoed through his poetry. I only knew that he had been a special forces soldier in Vietnam. He became a regular and a friend to poets David and Paula Banks that hosted the readings in their home in the colony perched over the Five Points on India and Washington streets.
By 1980, with the death of David from lung cancer, he showed up and read a poem for David at the inauguration of the Installation Gallery at 417 Fifth Avenue on skid-row in Downtown San Diego. Skid-row was soon to become the Gaslamp district. That was the last time I saw him.
At that time I did not know who he was beyond his voice as a poet and twenty-five years later I found out he was the poet laureate of the Vietnam Wall in Washington, DC.
-Gary Ghirardi
