Please Use This for Children and Not for War and Guns

In Please Use This for Children and Not for War and Guns, award-winning author and celebrated poet Cynthia Gustavson returns to the themes of politics and family tragedy. These true poems from Minnesota’s black-footed daughter illustrate Gustavson’s activist voice, her feminine wisdom, and her kind, yet critical tone.

The poem from which the book takes its name describes the simple letter she sent to the government along with her family’s taxes asking that they not be used to pay for war and guns. Another poem in this collection recounts a conversation between a mid-western mother and daughter about long-kept secrets discussed over an ice cream bucket full of lily of the valley slips. And in “The Poem that Needs to Be Written,” about a red-headed boy struggling with his sexual identity, Gustavson confronts an issue seldom tackled in mainstream poetry.

Her words will surely shock some, but they will inspire everyone.