Hi, I’m Matt Mason, Nebraska State Poet emeritus, meaning I served as state poet until the end of 2024, and I am here for Poets on the Plains.
Today, I’m reading and talking about my own poem titled “Rapture” which is from my most recent book Rock Stars.
As State Poet, I had a 5-year goal to bring at least one poetry event to all 93 of Nebraska’s counties. The goal was made a little tougher as there was a, you know, global pandemic thrown in early in my term, but I completed the goal last October with a reading in Tryon, Nebraska, Hitchcock County.
I’ve published 5 books of poetry so far and have read around the country, even in a few other countries in programs for the US State Department which sent me to Belarus, Nepal, Romania and Botswana.
Here in Nebraska, I ran a small press for a while, ran a poetry slam for 12 years, was in charge of a great nonprofit called the Nebraska Writers Collective which still runs writing programs in schools and correctional facilities as well as the All Writes Reserved Youth Poetry Festival each spring. I left that job almost 3 years ago to earn my living as a poet as, well, if you’re ever going to do that then maybe the best time to start is when you have a fancy title like State Poet. I’m still doing that, earning my living as a poet and a speaker, but have also started a nonprofit called Poetry Forward to keep working in schools and communities.
And here’s my poem:
Rapture
is the best song by Blondie.
It makes you feel
like there’s no other choice
but to raise your arms up
and shake your feet.
Even the
Man from Mars eating cars disco rap weird bits,
all of it.
Debbie Harry’s voice swoons to a command,
the piper playing to the wicker basket of cobras and
inhibitions be damned.
Though
when you hear it in a Chipotle,
in your forties, seated
across from your nine year-old daughter,
you realize
there are
limitations
to enchantments, to how much you
can get away with
shaking; that,
once,
you could let it all go
and who would care,
could carpe all the damn diem you dare, and,
in this chain-burrito experience,
in this age of greying hair, this
rapture
where, while gravity
holds you tight to your chair,
all around you,
others
are lifted
one by one
into the air.
This poem starts the book as I love looking at the contrast between a song I remember playing loud in my car as a teenager and, now, hearing in places like a burrito shop. It was a fun poem to write and play with both the sounds of it and how it looks on the page, with a lot of white space there at the end as everyone around me elevates into the afterlife. Leaving me, ya know, there at a table with burrito crumbs. As you might guess, I love humor in poems, especially when it’s an essentially serious poem about growing older like this one.
As I mentioned, “Rapture” comes from my 5th book, Rock Stars, published by Button Poetry in 2023. They make great presents so pick up several copies today!
This has been Matt Mason here in Omaha.
POETS ON THE PLAINS HOST AND FEATURED POET
Matt Mason served as the Nebraska State Poet from 2019-2024 and has run poetry workshops in Botswana, Romania, Nepal, and Belarus for the U.S. State Department. His poetry has appeared in The New York Times and Matt has received a Pushcart Prize as well as fellowships from the Academy of American Poets and the Nebraska Arts Council. His work can be found in Rattle, Poet Lore, Prairie Schooner, and in hundreds of other publications. Mason’s 5th book, Rock Stars, was published by Button Poetry in 2023. You can find more about Matt at https://midverse.com/
