Reviews

Soft Targets by Deborah Landau

jmarkwindy's review against another edition

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2.0

"the snow goes to the gallows of a warm grass and what survives" / "don't blame the wisteria"

wildgurl's review against another edition

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4.0

Cooper Canyon Press is an independent, non-profit small press located in Port Townsend, Washington. Since 1972 they have specialized in poetry.
Although they have been around since 1972, they are new to me and I'm so excited I found them. I have always loved poetry, and so far have read two of their many many titles.
I highly recommend you check out any of their many titles. Amazing minds!

Soft Targets by Deborah Landau. 2019

This is Landaus 4th collection of poetry. These poems embrace the pain of troubled times- increase in violence, decrease of morals, violence, terror attacks, hate crimes, climate change and also the love we embrace and share. As people, in these times, we've been made soft targets by the lack of leadership and strong minds besetting our communities.
Brilliant and timely, I loved the depth of these poems.

forgereads17's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

3.5

bree_klass's review against another edition

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3.0

Blur of speech in the gullet, gale of want in the throat.

This was nice, but only a small handful of lines stuck with me.

cstefko's review against another edition

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5.0

4.75 stars

Nearly perfect, Soft Targets is an incredibly poignant collection for our current political/environmental times. You know how book blurbs often call books "vital and necessary?" The description actually fits for this one. Landau commits to the concept of "soft targets" and the results are brilliant. The language is both playful and devastating, mirroring the whiplash of everyday life when you're plugged into the news cycle. Landau isn't the first to write about the theme of how to reconcile enjoyment of life with all of the inequality, violence, and environmental injustice in the world, but she executes it so impeccably. Only docking slightly because the collection does lose just a bit of steam at the end. Still probably the best collection I've read this year, and it's been a great year for poetry.

This would be a good one to read alongside Ilya Kaminsky's [b:Deaf Republic: Poems|40121980|Deaf Republic Poems|Ilya Kaminsky|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1527398356s/40121980.jpg|62223064], lots of parallels.

rachelscu's review against another edition

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emotional sad fast-paced

5.0

Very cathartic 
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