No bullet will outlast the speed and velocity of language. ***A powerful call to end American gun violence. Holy shit. These poems are way too difficult and they will hit you hard. I have not read anything like this. It is hard to find words to describe this book but please read this book and recommend it to everyone you know.

I received this poetry book through a Goodreads giveaway. It is incredibly relevant to the U.S. today, especially as the poems describe many of events related to gun violence. The poems support the need for more gun regulation. Worth the read!

Holy shit.Read this.

Through poetry and prose, parents, poets, politicians, social and political activists, and survivors of indiscriminate individual and mass shootings, express their thoughts and feelings about gun violence in the United States. The writing is presented in a call and response format: first a poem and then a prose commentary. In the introduction, novelist Colum McCann states why poetry is a good place to begin, "The poems assert the possibility of language rather than bullets to open our veins.” He...

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

Read this. And then give a copy to everyone you know.

Read it for it's advocacy, read it for the sheer talent of the writing, but read it. This book will change you to a depth you may not have thought possible. You may think I exaggerate, but I do not. Profound and moving in a way that leads to a passion to protect our friends, family and all those who are victims of this hateful violence. I am moved, grateful and angry.

One poem states that poetry doesn’t make good legislation. I think we need more poetry to bring heart and empathy to bear on legislation.

A must-read! This book is the most thoughtful, intentional anthology on the market today. Each contributor nails the message - a personal cry on gun violence. Have tissues handy and be ready to be moved.Event plug: Bear Pond Books presents a reading Friday, Nov. 2 at the Unitarian Church in Montpelier, Vt., with poets Major Jackson, Brian Clements, Matthew Olzmann, and Kerrin McCadden, and survivors Abbey Clements, GunSens VT Executive Director Clai Lasher-Sommers, and a representative of Moms D...

I really think you should read this, if not for the poetry than for the commentary after each poem.

To be read in small doses. It's a bit much to be trying to read this in one setting.

Exceptional anthology. Please read these bold poems about gun violence and think. Respond as many others do. Feel, Fight Write.

A well-curated group of devastating poems that flash in turns of rage, hope, despair, and determination in regards to our epidemic of gun violence in America. The decision to have a non-poet, but someone whose life has been altered by gun violence or who is either a civil servant or works for an organization dedicated to stemming the tides of such violence, react to each poem was a brilliant idea. These response bring an immediacy to these poems (as if they weren't already immediate) that is enh...

A decent book of poems on gun violence. What keeps this from being great is 95% of the poems are ant-gun and many go into tired tropes about racism. This is especially disappointing, since the book is billed as just dealing with all the aspects of violence. it further undermines it's supposed mission by having ant-gun zealots like Shannon watts TELL you what each poem means to them - thus reinforcing that you are being told what to think - rather than letting the reader interpret the poems on th...

Poetry can speak truth in powerful ways and this collection does. These poems and responses speak to many ways that gun violence impact lives. Join the conversation.My copy was a gift through Goodreads First.

I heard about this book from a recent article and regardless of where you sit on the gun control debate, this is an incredibly well put together collection of writings and responses detailing the matter. “I don’t want sympathy and I don’t want affection / I want this country to head in the right direction / Instead of discussin who the Grammys should be awardin / Work to prevent murders like those of my cousin, Jordan” – p. 1 (from Jordan by Nick Arnold) “And when a child is asked what they want...

Poets (including some of our most celebrated) have written poems about gun violence. Each poem is followed by a response from someone who has suffered from gun violence. Lots of great writing here. The responses are often as powerful as the poems.

There would nothing wrong with presenting a book-length collection of anti-gun poetry by itself, but Bullets into Bells increases its power by pairing each poem with a response written by a person who has been deeply affected by such violence. Note the eloquence of these lines from “Heal the Cracks in the Bell of the World,” by poet, Martín Espada. Now the bells speak with their tongues of bronze.Now the bells open their mouths of bronze to say:Listen to the bells a world away. Listen to the b...

This collection kept coming up in my feed, and I enjoy and respect many of the poets in this collection, so I decided to get my own copy.Not just a collection of poetry about gun violence, but also some micro-essay responses by victims of gun violence. The essays are precisely the right length for a poetry collection, in that none of them stretch beyond a page.Like the poems, some of the essays are of varying qualities. Some preachy and self-indulgent, and some of them cringe-inducing and poorly...

Incredibly powerful and moving collection of poems that is both emotionally difficult to read yet vitally important, especially given the national dialogue about gun violence. These are the heartbreakingly strong voices of gun violence survivors, parents of the first graders killed at Sandy Hook Elementary, friends of victims, concerned citizens and others. These pieces memorialize the tragedies and the names that have garnered national headlines as well as incidents known only to those who live...