Somebody Else Sold the World (Penguin Poets)

Whereas Adrian's previous books sang wonderful narratives, in his new collection, that includes a sequence of responses to Satie's Gymnopedies as well as much popular music over decades, he pushes his lines at times toward pure sound, lyricism that mumurs against meaning into exquisite metaphor. Matejka is giving the birds a run for their melodies, reminding me of how Sonny Rollins used to practice with the birds on the Williamsburg Bridge, I could see Matejka penning his poems outside beneath the night sky, chipping this poem out of starlight and the dark. Listen to these lines from the poem "I Say the Thing for the First Time," a kind of ars poetica:& what comes after? Charcoalunderbone, some darknessfor soliloquy & irises wideat home. Some other glitterparty popping off & endingwith me counting resignationson a couch made out of my lastpennies. Copper profiles lostin the cushions dull withemancipation & worth almostme...."This is a book whose notes will long hum in your ear long after you have turned the last page.

I love this book so much! SOMEBODY ELSE SOLD THE WORLD by Adrian Matejka. Jam-packed with innovation in sound, language, & form, the powers unleashed from this poet during lockdown fills you up to the brim, & you’re elated, rocked. In the midst of the hell of the last year, some good spirit got a hold of this poet & he was LIT and we get this firestorm of poetry as a result. There are these antagonists stalking the parameters, heartbreaking little love poem Gymnopédies to his daughter, weirdly seductively disquieting love notes, & poems inspired by, sung along to, in call and response to, motivated by all kinds of music, from Bowie of the title to Prince to Frank Ocean to Radiohead. Definitely one of the best books of the year.

I'm on a diet of Matejka's poetry and its horrifically addictive! I'm not surprised that he is the new editor of Poetry magazine. There are powerful (and musically-moving) pieces in "Somebody Else Sold the World." His is the kind of voice that needs to be heard on a platform as old and as prominent as Poetry magazine.