Analysis of The Valley of War and Faith

About this poem

(Psalms 23:4 inspired) War is never just one battle. It is a relentless march, a series of moments stretched thin between life and death, where survival is measured in inches and seconds. When I wrote this poem, I sought to expand beyond a single engagement and into the broader truth of combat—the weight of loss, the brutality of war, and the unseen toll that lingers long after the guns fall silent. I could have used any number of skirmishes, ambushes, or engagements I had been in during Desert Storm, where the sands of the Middle East swallowed the voices of war. Whether advancing through a storm of enemy fire or taking cover as rounds tore through the night, I knew the feeling of standing on the razor’s edge. Gunfire was more than noise—it was the sound of fate deciding who would live and who would not. The ground beneath my boots was more than dirt—it was the final resting place for men who had walked just steps ahead of me. Yet within that chaos, something else moved. Something unseen. As a Marine, I had been trained to trust my weapon, my brothers, and my instincts—but there came a moment when I knew that none of those things alone were enough. There, in the valley of war, surrounded by fire and loss, I felt the undeniable truth: I was not alone. Death had come close. I had smelled its breath, felt its grip, and yet something greater stood between us. Not armor. Not strategy. Not luck. It was faith. The kind of faith that does not break under the weight of war, that does not retreat even in the face of overwhelming darkness. It was an assurance that death does not have the final say.My poem is not just about a battlefield. It is about what comes after. The war may have ended, but its presence remains—not as a wound, but as an echo, a reminder of the unseen force that carried me through. The valley of war is in the past, but its lessons, its scars, and its divine presence are forever carved into my soul. more »