Waysides by Mike Matthews

In his latest collection, Waysides, Mike Matthews creates a meditative space that invites us in and encourages us to set aside our concerns so that we may see the moments of peace that we’ve left along the way. Filled with calm and color, these poems open up the walls of our lives and ask us to reflect on what lies behind them without judgement, without pressure, without the constraints of time and history. We can find as much meaning and beauty in a single sneaker sitting by the curb on the side of the road as in the sunflower that stops us in our tracks, if we are willing to sit a while with these poems and consider the questions they ask.

–Brian Cordell, Professor, author of In Their Final Performance. Finishing Line Press

Mike Matthews is a poet and artist whose calling is to restore and reinvigorate the spaces, objects, and moments that have been worn out by monotony.  His empathic nature and connection to the human soul makes the art that transports his audience to a place of unique nostalgia and common ground. His poems take us on the same journey he has taken in a search for meta cognitive enlightenment and healing finding a place past the trauma of human experience.

–Jenifer Newby, Artist.  jnewbygallery.com

Mike Matthews has a meditative gift of contemplation and beauty in the peculiar and abandoned. Each poem’s imagery of object or space in his speaker’s travels echoes an existence that plays with meaning through clever syntax. He reminds us that nothing is prosaic or spiritless, even in decay.

–Nicole M Metts, Founder and Chair of the Central Texas Writer’s Society.  Chief Editor and Publisher of annual Central Texas Writer’s Society Anthologies (found on Amazon).