Paul Vermeersch

Self-Defence for the Brave and Happy: Poems by Paul Vermeersch is the poet's sixth collection of published poetry. Vermeersch is a poet, professor, artist, and editor. He is the author of several poetry collections, including the Trillium–award nominated The Reinvention of the Human Hand and Don't Let It End Like This Tell Them I Said Something.

Self-Defence for the Brave and Happy begins with the paranoia of the 1950s science fiction movie. The opening poem reads like a Soviet view of 1950s America. The poems move to a world without modern technology like transportation and architecture and into computer prompted poems. Radioact follows up with interesting but random poems. Nursery Rhymes for Nuclear Children continues the 1950s paranoia with redacted nursery rhymes like Doctor Doctor Oppenheimer and Hush:

Hush, little planet,
nothing to fear.
Papa’s gonna buy you
an atmosphere.

And if that atmosphere
has costs,
Papa’s gonna buy you
a holocaust.

The collection continues on with a mix of humor and an undercurrent of fear. This is a fun, sometimes campy, and nostalgic look at the world we once knew.… (more)