I've grown a lot over the last semester. I've moved from mere interest in reading poetry to the desire and confidence to continue writing it. My personal life in the last year has been marked by a lot of turmoil; perhaps it's silly, but writing poetry, and reading Nine Gates--not only as instructions for the ethos of poetry, but the appreciation of truth, beauty, and life--has helped sustain me, and reconnect me to something I'd lost. With that in mind, I wanted my final portfolio to be symbolic of that persistence and growth, and a record of the words I didn't know I had in me.
The practice of poetry is twofold: writing and reading. So I've gone back and recorded all of my poems from the semester, the poems by Josie Prince--appropriately enough, it took learning poetry, the art of carefully choosing words, to teach me my own name. They are all collected here, in our voice--her voice--my voice. As far as symbols go, I can think of nothing better to embody my semester than the spiral I started the first day of class.
I hope you're all safe and well. Thanks for reading.
-Josie/Matt
Listen:
We Left the Flowers There on the Curb
Instructions When You Catch Feelings for the Life Drawing Model
Matt!
Your work really does seem to be able to stay true to the center of a thing, like your spiral. You are taking your readers on some terrific journeys without going all over the place. I hope you'll keep taking risks, staying true to you, staring that lion in the face, sometimes even stroking its mane. Thanks for sharing all these poems with us! I love your embrace your poem name, too!