Follow along below to witness the very first VSP Writers’ Retreat. In February 2026, Veteran and active duty military spouses travelled from six different states to create, to bond, to celebrate the beautiful fragility of being broken open.
That night, as I lie in our bed alone, I feel it…the loneliness. The absence of his breathing on the pillow beside me turns the room into a vacuum. The missing warmth of his body, his chest beneath my head, the rhythmic thud of his heartbeat – I’ve forgotten how to live without them.
This feels like deployment. Not just the absence but the underlying worry. It’s always there, always in your throat, behind your eyeballs, shoved under your fingernails.
Join VSP’s Audra Edwards as she guides you through the world of poetry and helps you tell your military spouse story, using prompts inspired by your favorite Netflix’s “Bridgerton” characters!
Join VSP’s Audra Edwards for a visual and verbal poetry journey through the places that have built and continue to build you. You won’t have to have poetry experience to leave this two-week workshop with a new perspective on the world around you and the words you can use to define it!
VSP’s Audra Edwards reveals what she describes as the “PCS Valley of Blah,” a lesser known, transitional time some milspouses experience in the initial weeks after a military move.
(Bonus 15/14) Veteran spouse Jeannie Puckett talks about how their lives were changed when her husband, Korean and Vietnam War Hero, COL (RET.) Ralph Puckett Jr., received the Medal of Honor in this final BONUS Stories We Tell: Jeannie Puckett installment from Veteran’s Spouse Project.
(14/14) Veteran spouse Jeannie Puckett reflects on gratitude as she and her husband, Medal of Honor Recipient and Korean and Vietnam War Hero, COL (RET.) Ralph Puckett Jr., navigate through his diagnosis of Parkinson’s in this fourteenth of fourteen Stories We Tell installments from Veteran’s Spouse Project.
(13/14) This poem of grief was written by Veteran spouse Jeannie Puckett the year after she and her husband, Medal of Honor Recipient and Korean and Vietnam War Hero, COL (RET.) Ralph Puckett Jr., lost their daughter, Jean, to cancer in this thirteenth of fourteen Stories We Tell installments from Veteran’s Spouse Project.
(12/14) Veteran spouse Jeannie Puckett describes the life events that followed after she and her husband, Medal of Honor Recipient and Korean and Vietnam War Hero, COL (RET.) Ralph Puckett Jr., made the decision to seek change and move back to Georgia in this twelfth of fourteen Stories We Tell installments from Veteran’s Spouse Project.
(11/14) Veteran spouse Jeannie Puckett details retirement life after her husband, Medal of Honor Recipient and Korean and Vietnam War Hero, COL (RET.) Ralph Puckett Jr., shifts his family to civilian life and its unexpected stressors in this eleventh of fourteen Stories We Tell installments from Veteran’s Spouse Project.
Veterans Spouse Project (VSP) is the only nonprofit arts organization in the nation working to give voice to the experiences of military spouses through theatre and creative arts. Learn more about how to share, connect, listen, and create with us in your community.
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