Whatever You Do, Just Don't by Matthew Stewart

These poems refuse to be pigeon-holed. Whatever they focus on—matters of the heart, football, the post-Brexit marketplace—their method is concise and yet searching, serious but playful. Their language is (mainly) English, their standpoint European.

By day, Matthew Stewart is involved in the Spanish wine trade. But his commitment to poetry is just as intense. Line by line, he weighs the risks, invests meticulous skill, and finally invites the trust on which everything else depends. He promises much—and he delivers.

      PAPER CLIP

      Birth and marriage certificates,
      recent passport applications,
      their wills and the deeds to the house—

      she slides a brand-new paper clip
      over the top, under the base,
      and forms a perfect rectangle.

      How it brings their things together.
      How neatly, temporarily,
      it brings them together.

HappenStance Press