Adrian Matejka Quotes

I was just thinking about not getting picked on for being black and not being hungry.
ADRIAN MATEJKA

Being Black Getting Hungry PIcked Thinking
I 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 MATEJKA

Always Available Casting Character Emotional Kid Model Possibilities Rerun Role Star
The day after the president Trump election, I remember feeling like it was 1984 again.
ADRIAN MATEJKA

Again Election Feeling Kid Political President Remember Say Writing
I learned a new language for it all in the 90s. Which in some ways isn’t bad.
ADRIAN MATEJKA

All Bad Language Learned Mean New Nineties Past Some Thinking Way
The 1990s were also when a bunch of the soft-shoe language for race, gender, and class became paramount.
ADRIAN MATEJKA

Also Black Bunch Gender Insecurity Language Paramount Race Shoe Soft Thinking
One of the hardest things for me to do is be fully open in a poem.
ADRIAN MATEJKA

Fully Fun Hardest Mean Open Poem Thing Writing
But fortunately there are also really excellent human beings all over the place, too. So it’s about perception and balance sometimes I think.
ADRIAN MATEJKA

Balance Excellent Fortunately Over Perception Place Sometimes
The contrasts between the haves and have-nots is so complicated.
ADRIAN MATEJKA

Between Complicated Contrast Have Not
I was fortunate enough to get a job at my alma mater, which brought me back to Indiana after being gone for twenty years.
ADRIAN MATEJKA

Alma Circumstance Enough Fortunate Get Gone Home Indiana Being Job Mater
One of the things I took from the show was emotional possibility.
ADRIAN MATEJKA

Emotional One Possibility Show Thing Took
I was a poor, geeky black kid in Indianapolis. There is nothing mythological about that.
ADRIAN MATEJKA

Black Country Geeky Kid Mythological Nothing Poor
You should check out William Shatner’s album The Transformed Man.
ADRIAN MATEJKA

Album Check Forever Man Out Transformed
Because before that I wasn’t thinking about systems or food insecurity or whatever.
ADRIAN MATEJKA

Before Food Insecurity System Thinking
It was in the air somehow. That ownership of bigotry. I hadn’t seen it since I was a kid.
ADRIAN MATEJKA

Air Bigotry Kid Ownership Since Somehow
It’s financial of course, but it’s also the lifestyle choices. The more money people have the further away from each other they often want to be.
ADRIAN MATEJKA

Away Choice Each Financial Further Lifestyle More Often Other People
It made me want to change the kinds of poems I was writing, but I’m terrible at writing overtly political poems.
ADRIAN MATEJKA

Change Made Poem Political Terrible Writing
I wanted to be like Spock because he was unflappable.
ADRIAN MATEJKA

Like Spock Unflappable Wanted
I never thought I would type that I learned how to emote in poems from watching Star Trek but there it is.
ADRIAN MATEJKA

Emote Learned never Poem Though Type Watching
Bones 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 MATEJKA

Allowed Band Bone Boy Different Emotional Grouch Posotion Show Sympathetic Worked
That was one of things that surprised me so much when I was writing the poems.
ADRIAN MATEJKA

Much One People Struggle Surprised Thing Writing Writing. Poem
They are 100% the product of the circumstances that led me home.
ADRIAN MATEJKA

Circumstance Home led Product
I had to find a way to be more honest about what happened. And it wasn’t fun to write, even though the poems aren’t 100% autobiographical.
ADRIAN MATEJKA

Autobiographical Enough Happened Honest More Poem
By that I mean, honest and not trying to amplify some mythological version of myself.
ADRIAN MATEJKA

Amplify Honest Mean Myself Mythological Trying Version
I mean getting people to think about what language actually means before they use it is a good thing.
ADRIAN MATEJKA

Actually Before Getting Good Language Mean People Thing Think
There is no way I would have written these poems had I not come back.
ADRIAN MATEJKA

Back Come Poem Way Written
I wanted to be like Kirk because he had magnetism and the ladies loved him.
ADRIAN MATEJKA

Kirk Ladies Like Love Magnetism Wanted
But it’s become very clear the past nine years that some Americans truly resent thinking before they speak.
ADRIAN MATEJKA

Become Clear Country Nine Past Resent Speak Thinking Very Year

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