Books published by Poetic Matrix Press

Poetry. In CHANGE (WILL DO YOU GOOD) Gail Entrekin lays out the boundries of what's really at stake in the affairs of the heart. In these poems, with an economy of words and the clarity of a practiced poet, she takes on life's transitions and, like Mary Oliver and Sharon Olds, bravely reveals the expectations beneath the choices we all must face. Gail Entrekin does what our best poets have always done; she makes the value of our emotional journeys available and visible...and real.

On Freedom: Organizational Science Examined PhilosophicallyScientific Freedom, Intellectual Freedom, Moral Freedom, Political Freedom, Spiriitual FreedomA few words about the organization of this book. It follows what can be described as a narrative, in that it moves in stages, each of which combines more than one objective. This is evident, for example, in the first chapter on Scientific Freedom, which endeavors to situate “organization” within a philosophical tradition, the introduction of concepts that have moved organization to science, and the struggle of this science with ethical neutrality—all of which are more confusing to address when treated as separate topics. In an earlier attempt to break this manuscript into topic headings, my impression was that it subtracted from more than added to its clarity. If the narrative, standing alone, could not speak for itself, it probably needed to be reworked. Titles vary with the interest of the intended audience, and I concluded that this book might be of interest to more than one audience—specifically to one interested philosophically in freedom and another interested in a science of organization. - from the author's Preface

This is a memoir by musician Hassan El-Tayyab and recounts his trip across the US looking for that elusive muse. He arrives in Berkeley and hooks up with a group creating a metal sculpture called Fishbug. They go to Burning Man in the Nevada dessert and here he writes the musical piece Temple Sunrise. Hassan is a musician singer/songwriter with his group America Nomad. This is a book of travel, personal exploration, community, and that elusive finding of the creative source. A beautiful song comes of this journey as well as a beautiful, insightful book. Hassan El-Tayyab is an award-winning singer/songwriter, author, teacher, and cultural activist currently residing in San Francisco, California. His critically-acclaimed Americana act American Nomad performs regularly at festivals and venues up and down the West Coast and beyond. In addition to performing Hassan is also a music educator, having taught songwriting and guitar classes for the Freight and Salvage and The East Bay Center for the Performing Arts. Hassan has also been a guest lecturer on song writing at the University of California, Berkeley.

Poetry. Collaboration. THE ART OF HEALING documents in poetry the experience of Charles' bout with cancer. Poets Charles Entrekin and Gail Rudd Entrekin--husband and wife, survivor and caregiver, insider and witness--beautifully, vulnerably and sometimes heartbreakingly share their finely crafted poems in this brilliant volume. In this collection, both poets were moved to make sense of what was happening in their lives through the writing of poems. Unaware of each others content, they continued writing throughout the treatment. Later, upon reflection, they realized that they had been coming to grips with the same events through poems that seemed to complement each other. These poems reflect those two journeys, from diagnosis to treatment to healing, and the coming to terms with what remains, what it means to be alive and part of a larger web of being. This is a book for anyone who has come to know the meaning of suffering and healing.

Poetry. Asian American Studies. "Yearn Hong Choi has gathered here a group of Korean-American poets that reflects their diversity in both real and imagined experiences. This anthology celebrates the strengths of history and culture that add so much to American literature. These brave and sensitive poems demonstrate how compelling are the aspirations that we all share. When we feel trapped in the crevice between life and death or experience the sorrows of violence and war, we treasure the beauty of those sacred moments held dear. These poems reveal the beginnings of a new life while holding onto a spiritual kinship to the homeland of their childhood."--J. Glenn Evans

Poetry. Middle Eastern Studies. Asian American Studies. "Al Andalus--a unique cultural convergence in human time where myth hovers the way moths are drawn to lampshine, and in her luminous, spare language, Shadab Zeest Hashmi catches its essence: attar of memory, the perfume of peace, sweet rising dough of dailiness; at the end, smoke rising, the reek of war, useless keys, exile, sorrow distilled and deepened by the presence--in these deeply felt, lovely poems--of what feels newly lost."--Eleanor Wilner