Reading the poems of James Matthew Wilson leads one to consider the things that matter in life. It’s an exercise in calming the emotions and quieting the soul. Wilson celebrates the permanent as opposed to the transitory; one learns more about our common humanity by reading “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” from The Canterbury Tales or a play by Shakespeare than any tweet on Twitter, photograph on Instagram, and post on Facebook. The exception may be TikTok, where we can demonstrate our common humanity by illustrating just how ridiculous we’re willing to look.
What matters to Wilson, as explored in his poetry? Family. Children. Tradition. Heritage. A good name. Faith. Work. Responsibility. The wonder of creation. Even something as mundane as the routines which structure our lives.
All of these ideas and themes are found in his latest poetry collection, The Strangeness of the Good.
To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.
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