Can't Climb a Mountain in a Ball Gown

Can't Climb a Mountain in a Ball Gown, C.O. Moed's poetry collection, is an intimate journey through an inner landscape, from rough beginnings, through beds and bars in the Lower East Side, to maturity, self-acceptance, and true love. Moed's talent and compassion as a writer and her charming, no-nonsense humor create light and splashes of color, even when the streets are dark and hold uncertainty. This collection explores love in all its forms, complicated, painful, funny, and real, set against the backdrop of city life and memory. The poems are honest and direct, moving through relationships, loss, and self-discovery with a strong, clear voice. There is both humor and heartbreak here. These are poems that feel lived-in and true, and they stay with you long after you finish reading. Can't Climb a Mountain in a Ball Gown, C.O. Moed's poetry collection is a collision of past and present, with language of blood and surprise, doubt and hope.

"C.O. Moed's dazzling debut poetry collection, Can't Climb a Mountain in a Ball Gown, welcomes the reader, with boldness and authenticity, to travel on an intimate journey, from rough beginnings, through beds and bars on the Lower East Side, to maturity, self-acceptance, and true love. We are thoroughly engaged, charmed-and at times, disarmed-by Moed's unique voice, her talent, resilience, and wisdom." -Judith Lee Herbert, author of Songbird"Some moments have the brutal truth and tenderness of a city street at midnight just after the rain. Hyperreal, crisp-edged clarity-more honest than nostalgia, more hopeful than cold reportage-everything shimmers to the edge of understanding. In Can't Climb a Mountain in a Ball Gown, you feel the truth as both unexpected and inevitable, exactly where poetry is supposed to live." -Matthew Hupert, 2020 Acker Award poet, author of Ism is a Retrovirus"Can't Climb a Mountain in a Ball Gown offers beauty in unexpected, gritty spaces. Sinking into this poetry is a chance to witness and feel, fully and shamelessly: from the soft to the hard, alone to connected, the streets to the bedroom. Moed's charming, no-nonsense humor creates light and splashes of color, even when the streets are dark and hold uncertainty. Read this one with a wildly beating heart and wide-open eyes." -Kathy Curto, Author of Not for Nothing: Glimpses into a Jersey Girlhood"Can't Climb a Mountain in a Ball Gown is a collision of past and present, with language of blood and surprise, doubt and hope. Filled with longing and mischief, and 'that cannibal called loneliness, ' it's knowing 'the exact moment it is all over so I can teach you how to use the washer and dryer.' (So, the beloved-the one who didn't leave-won't ever need someone else)." -Estha Weiner, author of This Insubstantial Pageant"This collection explores love in all its forms-complicated, painful, funny, and real-set against the backdrop of city life and memory. The poems are honest and direct, moving through relationships, loss, and self-discovery with a strong, clear voice. There is both humor and heartbreak here. These poems, lived-in and true, stay with you long after you finish reading." -Francine Witte, author of Some Distant Pin of Light

Author: C. O. Moed
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Pink Trees Press, Inc.
Published: 10/06/2026
Pages: 114
Weight: 0.31lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.24d
ISBN: 9781970691061