Soft Targets

By Deborah Landau

Starred Review in Publishers Weekly: "Through the cadence of these poems, which sometimes resemble lullabies in their dreaminess and gorgeous lyricism, Landau captures the ways humans persist, despite our collective anxiety, in our longing for 'something tender, something that might bloom.'”
Deborah Landau’s fourth book of poetry, Soft Targets, draws a bullseye on humanity’s vulnerable flesh and corrupted world. In this ambitious lyric sequence, the speaker’s fear of annihilation expands beyond the self to an imperiled planet on which all inhabitants are “soft targets.” Her melancholic examinations recall life’s uncanny ability to transform ordinary places—subways, cafes, street corners—into sites of intense significance that weigh heavily on the modern mind.
“O you who want to slaughter us, we’ll be dead soon/enough what’s the rush,” Landau writes, contemplating a world beset by political tumult, random violence, terror attacks, and climate change. Still there are the ordinary and abundant pleasures of day-to-day living, though the tender exchanges of friendship and love play out against a backdrop of 21st century threats with historical echoes, as neo-Nazis marching in the United States recall her grandmother’s flight from Nazi Germany.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Copper Canyon Press
• Release date: Jun 18, 2019
• ISBN: 9781619321960

Book preview

Soft Targets

DEBORAH LANDAU

COPPER CANYON

PRESS

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Thank you. We hope you enjoy these poems.

This e-book edition was created through a special

grant provided by the Paul G. Allen Family

Foundation.

for Ethan, Julian,

and Miranda

Contents

Title Page

Note to Reader

when it comes to this fleshed neck

there were real officers in the streets

those nazis, they knew what to do with a soft

America wants it soft

into the sheets we slipped, a crisis

Reviews for Soft Targets

[over.the.edge · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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. 2019This 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.sex These poems feature transformation, overcoming huge odds and finding the beauty of life in every situation.