American Chew

“Matthew Lippman’s poems know how to love as only a heart knows how to love. Swelling with rage, candor, humor, and empathy, his lyrics embrace vulnerability and grit that navigate the mire that the world lays before us each day. Their music makes singular reconciliations where anxiety and angst are lent a tough and tender grace.”

—Michael Morse

“Reading a Matthew Lippman poem is like encountering an unstoppable force—or forces. One moment you’re walking down Broadway next to an old friend who’s talking a mile a minute—he’s on a tear, he’s manic but eminently likable, and his monologue is heating up to the point of combustion. Another moment you’re listening to a voiceover spoken by a hardboiled and vaguely hypnagogic private eye. And yet another moment you’re at the Tamarack Lodge in a Catskills of long ago listening to a crazed Borscht Belt comedian. And finally you’re listening to a mystic intoning prophecies from deep in the reaches of a dream. I love poetry that takes me through such a range of voices, guises, poses, intensities, and diapasons, yet also manages to make me feel that I am in the presence of a truly human and truly real and singular personality. These poems were written by a man who takes much pleasure in moving through this mysterious world in language and in a body. He wants to share this pleasure with us—and that is generous, and as good a reason for writing poems as any I can think of.”

—Geoffrey Nutter