THE MUCH LOVE SAD DAWG TRIO IBD

Sinopsis

I am so very glad to see The Much Love Sad Dawg Trio reissued. Because of the untimely passing of the book&rsquo,s publisher, this first collection of poems by such an uber-talented poet received far less recognition than it deserved. How do I describe a Matt Sadler poem? When I read a Matt Sadler poem I feel a slow brightening in my head. It&rsquo,s a warmth that leads to a sudden awakening, like the speaker in &ldquo,Letters to Trees,&rdquo, where Sadler writes &ldquo,I&rsquo,m listening to Brahms again and the cello sounds almost happy this time/and the light through the window forms a perfect triangle/ on the brown carpet and the whole room is this new apple/ we&rsquo,re living on.&rdquo, The poems in The Much Love Sad Dawg Trio are the difficult combination of being reverent and humble. It is not the &ldquo,look at me being humble&rdquo, type of humility of Christianity, but the quality of mind of someone almost inexhaustibly willing to inhabit a world before passing judgment. It&rsquo,s like Matt Sadler&rsquo,s mission is to start his own religion not beholden to the &ldquo,do&rsquo,s and don&rsquo,ts, for-the-lord-/hath-saids, and other forced wisdoms.&rdquo, (Imperative, 14). His poems wake and wake again, but unlike Buddhism, they don&rsquo,t need to quash the self or desire. In the poem &ldquo,Dreaming at Kyi-Yo&rdquo, where the speaker&rsquo,s feels compelled to dance until self and dance are one. The poems continually wonder how at human kinds endless ingenuity of self-creation. In one poem, Sadler tells a parable of a bag of potatoes that left alone in a cupboard began multiplying, reminiscent of our uniquely human ability &ldquo,to make something out of nothing&rdquo, (26). These lovely poems from The Much Love Sad Dawg Trio, not only brighten my head, but also spur me to action. After I read this book I find myself turning toward the window to notice the cerulean blue sky behind the pine forest. I feel my body suddenly restless to leave the house and walk around the neighborhood for no good reason except to notice the world again. In &ldquo,Letter to Layne from Tucson,&rdquo, he writes, &ldquo,I&rsquo,d like to be held like that again,/ if only in your mind, with care and utility&rdquo, (19). And ultimately, that is what I love so much about this collection, its care and utility, the way it holds the world.