Bullets into Bells: Poets & Citizens Respond to Gun Violence | 
^^[11 Gunshots] by Vanessa German
Response from gun reform activist Camilla Williams: “Are we talking the sexy gun violence or the ugly gun violence? […] Where I am from it‘s the ugly gun violence where it seems no one gives a damn! It‘s hell—in order not to be scared you have to not be afraid to die.”
33 The Crisis lady says It‘s OK to cry.
Keisha says she been ran out of tears.
60 One man, two guns, fifty dead—
Two men kissing.
pickThe pain in these poems. Piercing, aching, raging, mournful lines on gun violence, each followed by a reflection from a victim, relative, activist, doctor. Call & response is effective—a pause, story, insight to break up the intensity of the poetic lines. Premiere poets (Reginald Dwayne Betts, Jericho Brown, Rita Dove, Mark Doty, Naomi Shihab Nye, Ocean Vuong +++). Poems to rip you open. Visceral, relentless read. This will stay with me. 2017
