Poems by Ted Mathys
Deeply lyric meditations on power, ecology, and political engagement.
Beginning with the delivery of a diplomatic soccer ball to Henry Kissinger and culminating in a transformative road trip through the Deep South, these three poem cycles navigate the contradictions of modern life and morality. From exploring the deification of athletes and statesmen to considering the instincts that lead a sea turtle to nest in a Wal-Mart parking lot, Mathys revels in exploding the lyrical terrain of paradox.
Reviews
“[Mathys] is a bit like the mid-century poets of the New York School of poetry (which counts John Ashbery and Frank O’Hara among its members), only with the whimsy replaced by a menacing sense of claustrophobia. You find he can go from high culture to low in one stomach-churning swoop . . . . wonderfully, disturbingly, upsettingly real. Reading Mathys, one remembers that poetry isn’t a dalliance, but a way of sorting through life-or-death situations.” —Los Angeles Times
