#irl

by Matthew David Wachsman

Overview

"...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.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940166493231
Publisher:	Matthew David Wachsman
Publication date:	10/10/2022
Sold by:	Draft2Digital
Format:	eBook
File size:	445 KB

About the Author

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.

Editorial Reviews

2022-11-08
A poet ruminates about the difficulties of the mortal world in this collection.

Hashtags are for the digital world—they help people find and organize specific information in an ever expanding internet landscape. But the acronym irl means “in real life,” and it’s in the tangible sphere that Wachsman wants to orient his poems’ speakers, as they use the abstract to convey how hard the monotony of existence can be. At first glance, being alive seems unforgiving and mysterious, and every step forward is like taking a “muddy footstep” into the unknown. Readers have all felt stuck in a loop of “I did this / I did that then more of this and that and / then other stuff and this other stuff / and wondered how I could ever get to this this this and that / that other stuff / and then this?” To Wachsman, some days teach people harsh lessons about human nature (“It’s Too Late for Sleep”) and the awkward phases of adolescence and romantic regrets (“A Performance of Rituals”). Other pieces reflect on aging, the seemingly inevitable momentum involving the formation of people’s characters, and the tensions of generational differences (“The Ghosts of Tiny Arms Around Her”). The author excels at creating distinct narratives quickly, and the strongest poems are those that use accessible conceits to parse what life is trying to teach humans as a species, if anything. His speakers express loss keenly and often meditate on the past. Simple statements punctuate more illustrious language in disarming ways. Despite a title that suggests some fixation with the digital divide, the book is light on technology references and critiques, with only passing mentions of “monetizing clicks,” cellphones, and the misery of online dating. One poem is titled like a website (“what3words.com”). Technology is not the primary antagonist here—human nature is. There are a few pandemic and insurrection allusions (“the wave,” “My Hands Are Better Than My Body”) that date some of the pieces, but most feel timeless. Wachsman’s eclectic citations include classic works and such figures as Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Bach, and Orpheus woven in with Radiohead, the prom, and woke culture. This mix of high and low culture skillfully reflects how readers cobble their worldviews from a variety of sources. The pieces overall have a pessimistic take on how life shapes us and how “we are normalizing / the unacceptable / and thus become normal / Normal is what we agree to accept.” But the enduring light in the absorbing collection is love. Compared to the wrongs that seem to materialize from nowhere, Wachsman argues, love is something earned, and that effort is what makes it worthwhile: “At last there is one man / who was a stranger schooled and loved and loving / seasoned and preparing outside of your awareness…now harvested / Relief and love / the fruits so long sought.” According to the poet, looking to the past to explain one’s current social failings is easy; looking to the future with hope is much harder.

This compelling collection presents an undaunted examination of how humanity copes with rot and despair.

Kirkus Reviews