#irl - Matthew David Wachsman

. .

Résumé :
...the enduring light in the absorbing collection is love. Kirkus Reviews ?#irl is a ravishing and provocative odyssey across the landscape of life. Matthew David Wachsman's collection of poems is a full-throated celebration of our ability to love, reason, cure, support and honor each other. It is also an unflinching exploration of why we can and must do better. He inspires us to believe in ourselves while laying out the possible implications of our failure to act. These poems are a map of the psyche, offering insight into what motivates us and how to better understand and respect each other. Dating, love, fighting, making our community better, growing up and growing old: #irl is the story of us in all of our chaotic, majestic glory. It includes a poem about an invented word, a word that means a feeling so much greater than love. There are five poems inspired by George Floyd including A Permanent Stain, about the enslavers who desecrate Wachsman's family past. Miraculous looks to the future every human on earth is making in each moment. Wachsman calls us out for self-inflicted wounds but refuses to let go of the very real possibility that with love and courage, we will prevail. We must.

Biographie:
Matthew David Wachsman is a second-generation poet. His poetry collection #irl is his most ambitious attempt to understand the act of living, and to share what he has learned from history, romantic relationships and a career behind the camera. His proximity to historical events forced him to confront just how much everyone shares responsibility for who we decide to be. He was at the edge of the stage at West Point, in 2002 when President George W. Bush laid out a new policy which enabled the US to invade Iraq. Wachsman knew in that moment war was inevitable. He was inside the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad, Iraq, a week before Thanksgiving in 2003 as his hotel was being bombed by terrorists. He was in Doha, Qatar in 2006, ten feet in front of Nobel Peace Prize winner Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa as Tutu laid out his proposal to reduce and possibly end religious tensions around the world. Wachsman was shattered as the delegates in the closed-door UN group meeting refused to engage with Bishop Tutu.Wachsman is an Emmy Award winning cinematographer. His work has appeared on 60 Minutes, ESPN and HBO. He is author of In Between, a novel to be published in 2023.