Too Short to Box with God by Matthew Johnson

$17.99

 

Too Short to Box with God affirms that boxing is more than sport. Matthew Johnson’s poignant collection shows the grace and grit of pugilists never at rest, men whose punches echo history, injustice, racism, and even redemption. Boxing legends move through these poems. But the poet “watches it all,” sometimes from the safety of a ringside seat, sometimes closer to the damage on canvas, making meaning of fighters and fights, hitting notes that reverberate beneath and beyond the pain.

–Adam Berlin, Author of the Standing Eight

 

A remarkable, talented young poet committed to sports literature, Matthew Johnson fires fast verse combinations, in Too Short to Box with God, that Muhammad Ali would have loved.  Johnson is a scholar of boxing, glories, and tragedies… the blindness of greats.  There is the abject sadness of KO’d Sonny Liston with Ali over him, screaming, Get up, sucker.  And Johnson throws poetic jabs ‘n hooks in celebration of the immortal Jack Johnson… Galveston goliath.  With  Too Short to Box with God, Matthew Johnson presents himself as a champ of boxing poetry.

–Red Shuttleworth, author of Eclipse of the Sun: Boxing Poems

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Too Short to Box with God

by Matthew Johnson

Paper

$15.99 List: $17.99

979-8-88838-652-1

2024

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This title will be released on November 8, 2024

Too Short to Box with God is a poetry collection that draws on the vast history of one of the world’s oldest sports to both celebrate and reflect on the sweet science of boxing and the fighters who have not only dedicated their lives to the fight, but have embodied cultural and socio-political importance that goes beyond the ring. Ranging from the works of ancient literature, such as Homer’s Iliad and The Bible, to towering and transcendent fighters like Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali, Too Short to Box with God examines how boxing, across time, has intersected with entertainment, literature, politics, race, and religion. Evoking the action, atmosphere, controversy, and sympathy of a complicated and violent sport, Too Short to Box with God, explores the impact of boxing in a poetic form like no other collection has done before.

Matthew Johnson is the author of Shadow Folks and Soul Songs (Kelsay Books) and Far from New York State (New York Quarterly Press). His poetry has appeared in Apple Valley Review, The Amistad, Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, London Magazine, San Pedro River Review, and elsewhere. A recipient of the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominations, and a Writing Residency from Sundress Publications, he is the managing editor of The Portrait of New England and the poetry editor of The Twin Bill.

www.matthewjohnsonpoetry.com

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