Platos de Sal: A single long poem in three sections, “Knit,” “Field,” and “Bar.” Number Two in the Seven Kitchens Press Editor’s Series, selected by Ron Mohring.
Published: March 31, 2009 [125 copies]
24 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0-9820372-6-3
$9.00
from Grady Harp‘s review: “Hittinger gently muses on the passion experienced by David and Juan as well as the unspoken secret of Rut’s love for Mara. Rarely has same sex love been so discreetly shared, or so erotically charged simply through the use of a few phrases or words. We discover the meaning of the word ‘juntar’ (knit) and the double meaning of placing two quilts together, face to face. And with great courtesy to the reader Hittinger introduces the idea of memory becoming the only remnant of that summer at the shore: radio broadcasts speak of current conditions of the war – the only background noise that disrupts this tale.”
Matthew Hittinger is the author of Pear Slip, winner of the Spire Press 2006 Chapbook Award, and Narcissus Resists (GOSS183, 2009). Shortlisted for the National Poetry Series, the New Issues Poetry Prize, and twice for the Walt Whitman Award, Matthew’s honors include a Hopwood Award and The Helen S. and John Wagner Prize from the University of Michigan, the Kay Deeter Award from the journal Fine Madness, and a Pushcart nomination. His work has appeared in many journals including American Letters & Commentary, Center, DIAGRAM, Mantis, Meridian, Memorious, Michigan Quarterly Review, MiPOesias, Oranges & Sardines and elsewhere, including the anthology Best New Poets 2005. Matthew lives and works in New York City.
from “Bar”:
. . . Rut rested her thumb
on the shell and began to think about
a stick David tossed, broken end over
broken end into dune-grasses, how she
wished it would have hit that mother clucking
on a cell phone as she spread her freckled
arms with sunblock, her kids chasing the gulls
with stones, water at her ankles, her veined
calves goose-pimply. ‘Her name was Mara.’
Other poems online by Matthew Hittinger:
- “This Is Not About Pears” at Verse Daily
- “Red Crescent,” “Sitting in a WaWa Parking Lot,” and “5th Avenue Stretch” in Scythe Literary Journal
See also:
More news & many more poems can be found on Matthew’s web site.
Purchase Matthew’s chapbook here.
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