Winner of the American Poetry Review/Honickman First Book Award.
All American Poem plumbs the ecstatic nature of our daily lives. In these unhermetic poems, pop culture and the sacred go hand in hand. As Matthew Dickman said in an interview, he wants the “people from the community that I come from”—a blue-collar neighborhood in Portland, Oregon—to get his poems. “Also, I decided to include anything I wanted in my poems. . . . Pepsi, McDonald’s, the word ‘ass.’”
There is no one to save us
because there is no need to be saved.
I’ve hurt you. I’ve loved you. I’ve mowed
the front yard. When the stranger wearing a sheer white dress
covered in a million beads
slinks toward me like an over-sexed chandelier suddenly come to life,
I take her hand in mine. I spin her out
and bring her in. This is the almond grove
in the dark slow dance.
It is what we should be doing right now. Scraping
for joy . . .
Matthew Dickman is the winner of the May Sarton Award from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a poetry editor of Tin House, and the coauthor, with brother Michael Dickman, of 50 American Plays. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
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Ganador del premio American Poetry Review/Honickman First Book Award. All American Poem sondea la naturaleza extática de nuestra vida diaria. En estos poemas poco herméticos, la cultura pop y lo sagrado van de la mano. Como dijo Matthew Dickman en una entrevista, quiere que “la gente de la comunidad de la que vengo”, un barrio obrero de Portland, Oregón, reciba sus poemas. “Además, decidí incluir todo lo que quisiera en mis poemas. . . . Pepsi, McDonald's, la palabra 'culo'”.
Matthew Dickman es el ganador del premio May Sarton de la Academia Estadounidense de Artes y Ciencias, editor de poesía en Tin House y coautor, con su hermano Michael Dickman, de 50 American Plays. Vive en Portland, Oregón.