The Devil's Garden

by Adrian Matejka

Using musical allusion and metaphor, juxtaposing history and autobiography, Matejka navigates a triracial identity. In these poems, having too many heritages means having no heritage at all. As a result, cultural identifiers-be they afros, war paint, or William Shatner-take the place of identity. Vibrant narrative lyrics use image as riff, syllable as note, to improvise on a personal history severed from tradition.

Betwixt and Between

Miscegenation's capitol
is the mule. Not quite horse,
almost donkey. No useful
erection to speak of.
In any unnatural concoction,
somebody's got to take
the blame. Freud would say
credit the mother if props
are necessary.
Mulattos
are human mules-half
black, most times more
than half white-misogynous
on a good day. All the while,
impotent between tribes.
gift of the exotic,
like Hendrix opening
for the Monkees, or Othello
key holed by Iago. Blessed
be he with the hybrid vigor
of melanin, arrested between
the sun and the sun.

"Reading Adrian Matejka's amazing debut, I was left with the feeling that American Poetry was at last beginning to catch up with early twenty-first century American life. He has written the first serious songs from a world that's about to make itself felt and known."-Cornelius Eady

Genres: Poetry

78 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2003

About the author

Adrian Matejka was born in Nuremberg, Germany but grew up in California and Indiana. He is a graduate of Indiana University and the MFA program at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. His first collection of poems, The Devils Garden, won the 2002 Kinereth Gensler Award from Alice James Books. His second collection, Mixology, was a winner of the 2008 National Poetry Series and was published by Penguin Books in 2009. Mixology was subsequently nominated for an NAACP Image Award. He is a Cave Canem fellow and is the recipient of two Illinois Arts Council Literary Awards. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in American Poetry Review, The Best American Poetry 2010, Crab Orchard Review, Gulf Coast, Pleiades, and Prairie Schooner among other journals and anthologies. He teaches at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville where he serves as Poetry Editor for Souwester."

Reviews

[Alicia (PrettyBrownEyeReader) · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, the cover for this collection is eye-catching. It is a painting by Seattle artist, Kevin Neireiter and helps set the vibe for readers of the collection. Another way Matejka sets the vibe is by the quotes chosen at the beginning. One of those quotes is from poet Rodney Jones “Being mixed, you’re the man of the future, Too bad the future isn’t now.”

Having mixed (multi) racial identities is a theme of the collection. Another theme that emerges is the dissolution of family. He has a poem that has the child’s perspective and the mother’s perspective of the father leaving. It is a great example of narrative poetry.

The poet has some excellent closing lines for the poems. In the poem, The Meaning of Rpms which is about a blind woman, he ends the poem “But Pearl could tell I was lying just by hearing me talk” Another thing the poet does well is the incorporation of music, Miles Davis and Al Green are mentioned in several poems.

I will definitely read more of his poetry.

[hh · Rating 3 out of 5]

solid. at times, pitch perfect.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tremendous collection of blues and being pieces.