What are the similarities and differences between "War Photographer" by Carol Ann Duffy and "Driving through Minnesota During the Hanoi Bombings" by Robert Bly?

Both Carol Ann Duffy's "War Photographer" and Robert Bly's "Driving through Minnesota During the Hanoi Bombings" are poems that seem to respond to the Vietnam War, and both poems were published in the mid-1980s. The poems both contrast an ordinary setting to a war setting, and both speakers reflect on the impact of war.
Duffy's war photographer, as we can tell from the title and the details early in the poem, has taken photos on the warfront and is not developing his images. The photographer takes his task very seriously. The speaker explains,

The only light is red and softly glows,
as though this were a church and he
a priest preparing to intone a Mass (3–5).

The photographer sees his work as sacred. Indeed, he is calling up images of the dead. The speaker lists places like "Belfast," "Beirut," and "Phonm Pehn," which are places related to different conflicts (the last one is in Vietnam). It is clear here that perhaps the poem is reflecting on global war on a wider scale than Bly does in his poem on Vietnam and a specific bombing event.
A major point of similarity between the two poems is evident in Duffy's second stanza, when the speaker reflects on the photographer's life at home and his life at war. The speaker writes,

Rural England. Home again
to ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel,
to fields which don’t explode beneath the feet
of running children in a nightmare heat (9–12).

The photographer's "Home" in "Rural England" is merely one of "ordinary pain." A striking image contrasts the fields of England to those of war, which would "explode . . . in a nightmare heat." The photographer is much safer now, yet he is possibly more affected by what he has seen as he recalls the events through his pictures. The speaker says his hands "tremble," even though they did not when he was on the front.
The third stanza reveals the speaker's memories associated with the images. Here, we see the more visceral depiction of war that was captured forever in the photos. As he sees the image of a man's face form in his dark room,

He remembers the cries
of this man’s wife, how he sought approval
without words to do what someone must
and how the blood stained into foreign dust (15–18).

The photographer is brought back to the moment he snapped this image. His memories include the wife of this man, now "half-ghost," crying out, and the photographer's feeling that he "must" do this duty. The impact of war is felt both in the photo and in "the blood stained into foreign dust." And yet, when the speaker closes the poem, it is the photographer's doubt and cynicism that rule. Although he imagines people seeing the "five or six" photos his editor will publish, the speaker knows their impact will not be felt by viewers:

From the aeroplane he stares impassively at where
he earns his living and they do not care (23–24).

This is a strong statement that indicates that the public cannot fully understand, not having been on the front, and therefore can never truly "care" about war in the way the photographer can.
Robert Bly's "Driving through Minnesota During the Hanoi Bombings," as I said, is more specific in its context. However, it maintains similar themes to Duffy's poem in the sense that Bly contrasts the homefront to the warfront and reflects on the war in ways that show its direct impact on the subject/speaker of the poem. The speaker shifts rather suddenly early in the poem from a discussion of turkeys and the environment to a seeming reflection on war:

We drive between lakes just turning green;
Late June. The white turkeys have been moved
A second time to new grass.
How long the seconds are in great pain!
Terror just before death,
Shoulders torn, shot
From helicopters (1–7).

The speaker and a companion are simply driving, but the speaker starts thinking about the "great pain," "Terror," and "death" associated with the bombings. The speaker includes a small bit of dialogue that may be related to an experience he has had at war or something he saw in an interview:


“I saw the boy
being tortured with a telephone generator,”
The sergeant said.
“I felt sorry for him
And blew his head off with a shotgun.”
These instants become crystals,
Particles
The grass cannot dissolve (7–14).



The sergeant's reasoning is disturbing, as is the accompanying imagery. It seems ironic that he would kill someone he pitied. Significantly, the speaker notes that the memories "cannot dissolve." Just as for the photographer in Duffy's poem, the impacts of war stay with the speaker despite his ordinary surroundings.

In the second half of the poem, the speaker continues,


Our own gaiety
Will end up
In Asia, and you will look down in your cup
And see
Black Starfighters.
Our own cities were the ones we wanted to bomb!
Therefore we will have to
Go far away
To atone
For the suffering of the stringy-chested
And the short rice-fed ones, quivering
In the helicopter like wild animals,
Shot in the chest, taken back to be questioned (14–26).



The first part of this section of the poem suggests that even happy times in the present, at home, can trigger memories of the war. The attempt to "Go far away / To atone" is probably unsuccessful, since most of the poem's tone seems remorseful and melancholy. In that sense, both poems have a similar tone.

Both Duffy's and Bly's poems are about the impact of war on those who have witnessed or experienced war in some capacity. The poem's tones suggest the lasting and inevitable way that the experiences stay with the subjects of the poem. Duffy's poem further implies that those who do not experience war are not impacted much at all.