You Cannot Shoot a Poem - by Paula Closson Buck (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In You Cannot Shoot a Poem, Paula Closson Buck offers sharp-witted, deeply felt, and skillfully structured poems. With clear and powerful imagery, these poems reveal an urgent need to rethink the way we interact with each other and the planet. Touching on racism, environmental exploitation, and failed political diplomacy, Closson Buck relies on the ability of poetry to enter otherwise hidden or forbidden territories.

Closson Buck transports readers to the abandoned city of Varosha, Cyprus, with its history of interethnic violence; to Venice, Italy, as the water in the Lagoon rises; to Niagara Falls, New York, where she sets a personal moral compass against environmental degradation and religious zeal. She examines the decline of these cities with precise attention to the lives caught in the current.

Sometimes satiric and sometimes elegiac, You Cannot Shoot a Poem inhabits a troubled world while inspiring confidence in the human ability to create change.

Review Quotes

Gosh, this book is stunning. From Niagara to Venice to a ghost city in Cyprus, Paula Closson Buck's poems explore the complicated, constant negotiations between the possibility of beauty and the persistence of despair, finding in the world's relentless decay whatever brightness remains. ('Even corrupted, it glitters, ' she writes.) Buck is a tuning fork for the human condition, a precision instrument seeking balance, and her pitch resonates: subtle, thrilling, intimate, gorgeous.--Amy Newman

Paula Closson Buck is a rare poet whose sharp observation is equal to her wit, her wit supported by her intelligence, and her intelligence fully engaged with a passion for beauty that is both sensual and ethical. You Cannot Shoot a Poem is a brilliant book, powerful and tactful, engaged and adroit.--Margaret Gibson

Paula Closson Buck's singular, lyric poetry has always shone with its unforgettable images, uncompromising syntax, and meditative voice. You Cannot Shoot a Poem is Buck's most astonishing collection yet, tackling matters current and ever-present, political and personal, animal and spiritual. Each poem startles and wakes us, demanding we pay attention to remember 'where once we were human.'--Shara McCallum

About the Author

Paula Closson Buck grew up in Niagara Falls, New York, and has spent significant periods of time in Italy, Greece, and Cyprus. The author of two previous poetry collections, The Acquiescent Villa and Litanies near Water, and a novel, Summer on the Cold War Planet, Closson Buck teaches creative writing at Bucknell University.