Still Trying Stuff

Almost like the buildup of snow in the mingling mountains, we word this ripping string. Diving
down is how we wake: shiver out the drunky morning, sound of traffic-clang and hand goodbye.
Here some meaning, here a fish that grumbles when we figure the world. Always a crosswise world,
always a pale resistance. Nearly all of life will happen without us. We remember that we are for
ashes, for grinning and for times. A grey-black fuzz hangs in corners and we try not to heel around
it…try to go through. Here we are in the fire that skins us.

 

Matthew Rotando has published poems in various places, most recently in Matador. He has written two books of poems, The Comeback’s Exoskeleton (2008) and Hail (forthcoming), both by Upset Press. He is an avid touring cyclist and hiker.

Ira Joel Haber was born and lives in Brooklyn. He is a sculptor, painter, writer, book dealer, photographer and teacher. His work has been seen in numerous group shows both in the USA and Europe and he has had 9 one man shows including several retrospectives of his sculpture. His work is in the collections of The Whitney Museum Of American Art, New York University, The Guggenheim Museum, The Hirshhorn Museum,The Albright-Knox Art Gallery & The Allen Memorial Art Museum. Since 2006 His paintings, drawings, photographs and collages have been published in over 230 on line and print magazines. He has received three National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, two Creative Artists Public Service Grant (CAPS), two Pollock-Krasner grants, two Adolph Gottlieb Foundation grants and, in 2010, he received a grant from Artists’ Fellowship Inc. in 2017 & 2018 he received the Brooklyn Arts Council SU-CASA artist-in-residence grant.