Brian Clements

Published in 2017, this book pre-dates half a dozen more incidents of gun violence on a mass scale across the country that underline its importance. This is a collection of new or relevant poems that cover all facets of gun violence from the perpetrator to the victim to those left behind to mourn or try to make sense of the tragedy. Each poem has a personal reflective response from someone whose life has been impacted by gun violence, "a call-and-response format, a church of the possible."It is an impressive collection of literature, but also dedicated people who want to see a better side of America and ensure safety of all its citizens. Though it leans left due to the sheer number of tragedies, there is representation of gun rights advocates and more importantly the call for common ground. How do we balance our freedom from the 2nd Amendment with responsible citizenship? No easy answers, but an important dialogue and a profound inquiry that shows the power of words and experience. "What poetry can do is untangle some of the 'facts' and reveal the human tissue underneath." says Colum McCann in his forward.… (meer)

A powerful collection in call-and-response format (a poem is followed by a response). Strongly anti-violence and heavily - but not completely - anti-gun. Many voices.

Quotes

Introduction, Colum McCann

Poetry calls out for us to be inclusive. (xx)

We are forced, in literature, to make the empathetic leap into the realm of someone else. (xxi)

"Morning Shooting" by Jimmy Santiago Baca

...life hits black ice and spins out sometimes,
I tell myself, but that doesn't mean we're lost,
doesn't mean the spinning will never end....

...the hour makes its rounds like a jailer...

"Bullet Points" by Jericho Brown

I promise that if you hear
Of me dead anywhere near
A cop, then that cop killed me.

"In Two Seconds" by Mark Doty (for Tamir Rice, 2002-2014)
the boy's face
climbed back down the twelve-year tunnel
of its becoming, a charcoal sunflower
swallowing itself. Who has eyes to see,
or ears to hear? If you could see
what happens fastest, unmaking,
the human irreplaceable, a star
falling into complete gravitational
darkness from all points of itself, all this:
the held loved body into which entered
milk and music, honeying the cells of him...
...when behind every tributary
poured into him comes rushing backward
all he hasn't been yet.

"[11 Gunshots]" by Vanessa German
...no one knows the language of these mornings the way that we do. how do you walk the child to the bus stop. who will call the fourth grade teacher. to tell them. listen. today. _____ is going to be different. may. need. more. ____. or. ____. please. accommodate this trauma. with. more. love and deep listening.

We must challenge every politician who thinks it's easier to ask an elementary school teacher to stand up to a gunman with an AR-15 than it is to ask themselves to stand up to a gun lobbyist with a checkbook. -Colin Goddard, VA Tech survivor, response to "Throwing A Life Line"

Perhaps the real question is not why are our children getting killed, but why are we standing by watching? -Rev. Michael L. Pfleger, response to "the bullet was a girl"

Activism is what love looks like in public. -John Grauwiler, response to "All the Dead Boys Look Like Me"

Scientific studies show that violence spreads from person to person, just like other communicable diseases. Just like other diseases, violence has a treatment and a cure. And it can be prevented, using the same public health approaches we take to other diseases...
Taking a public health approach to violence is how we can ensure that where our children live no longer determines whether they live.
-Leana S. Wen, response to "Something It's Taken Thirty Years to Write"… (meer)