All-American Poem

Matthew Dickman's all-American poems are the epitome of the pleasure principle; as clever as they are, they refuse to have ulterior intellectual pretensions; really, I think, they are spiritual in character-free and easy and unself-conscious, lusty, full of sensuous aspiration. . . . We turn loose such poets into our culture so that they can provoke the rest of us into saying everything on our minds.-Tony Hoagland, APR/Honickman First Book Prize judgeAll 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 usbecause there is no need to be saved. I've hurt you. I've loved you. I've mowedthe front yard. When the stranger wearing a sheer white dresscovered in a million beadsslinks toward me like an over-sexed chandelier suddenly come to life, I take her hand in mine. I spin her outand bring her in. This is the almond grovein the dark slow dance. It is what we should be doing right now. Scrapingfor joy . . .Matthew Dickman is from Portland, Oregon, and has been honored with writing fellowships from the Michener Center, Vermont Studio Center, and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown.