Description
Poetry. "Hi, Buck Downs would like to add you to his human network. This writing is wishing you will be here. A kind of private reception beyond the book space. Measured in the poem-postcard's shade, there is no such thing as a stranger. The Downs style collagist jam is broad and informal. It's as if a French poet took genuine American melted TV glass and threw it off the DC Bridge. Or his grandmother noticed how much he loved music, so she traded one of her milk cows for a neighbor's piano. Or the rhythms, carbonated and jubilant, rustle along. What a fine collection."—Melanie Neilson
"Whenever one of Buck's postcard poems arrives in the mail, I get so excited. I can't think of another poet who shares his work this way, and our days are better for it. That is the way I think about Buck's poetry: we are all in a better place because of his writing. Not that he deep-sixes problems or glosses over troubles. Buck has the ability to write about tough stuff by opening up possibilities instead of banging us on the head with a down-a-tude. As a poet-for-life, Buck is both an inspiration and a ton-of-fun."—Tina Darragh
"These poems remind us that every day is a really good day ... except for the ones that aren't."—Doug Lang
Author Bio
A native of Jones County, Miss., Buck Downs was raised in south Florida and later traveled to Texas then Louisiana in search of an education. In 1988 he moved to Washington, DC, where he still lives and works. Over the course of thirty years in Washington, Buck has led or contributed to many poetry and publishing ventures, including the Washington Review, Pink Line, and the D.C. Arts Center, where he currently serves as President of the Board of Directors. He is the author of MARIJUANA SOFTDRINK (Edge Books, 1999), Ladies Love Outlaws, You Can't Get Enough of What You Really Don't Need, TACHYCARDIA: POEMS 2010 - 2012 (Edge Books, 2015), and UNINTENDED EMPIRE: 1989-2012 (Furniture Press Books, 2018). In addition to writing and publishing books, Buck is best known for his poetry postcards, which have gone out to a list of about 200 friends and fellow poets since the mid-90s, and other author-published ephemera and printed objects.
Author City: WASHINGTON, DC USA