One of the hardest things for me to do is be fully open in a poem.
ADRIAN MATEJKAOne of the hardest things for me to do is be fully open in a poem.
ADRIAN MATEJKAIt made me want to change the kinds of poems I was writing, but I’m terrible at writing overtly political poems.
ADRIAN MATEJKAIt was in the air somehow. That ownership of bigotry. I hadn’t seen it since I was a kid.
ADRIAN MATEJKAThere is no way I would have written these poems had I not come back.
ADRIAN MATEJKAI was always casting about for role models as a kid and the Star Trek was always available via reruns and also full of possibilities.
ADRIAN MATEJKASo while I loved not being hungry and having new gear, etc. I missed the sounds of my neighbors and the kind of generosity people who are struggling together often show.
ADRIAN MATEJKAIt will alter the way you hear poetry forever. And not in a good way.
ADRIAN MATEJKAOne of the things I took from the show was emotional possibility.
ADRIAN MATEJKABy that I mean, honest and not trying to amplify some mythological version of myself.
ADRIAN MATEJKAI mean getting people to think about what language actually means before they use it is a good thing.
ADRIAN MATEJKAI never thought I would type that I learned how to emote in poems from watching Star Trek but there it is.
ADRIAN MATEJKABones was a grouch but he was sympathetic. The show worked like a boy band in that way… it had characters who embodied different psychic or emotional positions and that allowed me to see a great range of things
ADRIAN MATEJKAThey are 100% the product of the circumstances that led me home.
ADRIAN MATEJKAThe 1990s were also when a bunch of the soft-shoe language for race, gender, and class became paramount.
ADRIAN MATEJKAThat was one of things that surprised me so much when I was writing the poems.
ADRIAN MATEJKABecause before that I wasn’t thinking about systems or food insecurity or whatever.
ADRIAN MATEJKA