Poetic Matrix Press

03/13/2025

Dear friends,

Some of you may know, but doubtless many do not, that my father, John Peterson, passed away at the end of last year. We're fortunate to share that he passed away quickly in his home, working on the Poetic Matrix website, with clothes laid out for packing to come to a family gathering for the holidays. I treasure the knowledge that until the very end of his life, he was working on his projects and looking forward to the future.

The Poetic Matrix was the great work of my father's life. For over 25 years he delighted in working with poets and others from all walks of life and from around the world. He loved editing and laying out books, and every time he published a new volume he was was excited to share it with his friends, family, and the world. Some of his authors were long-time collaborators and friends with whom he produced multiple volumes; others were those sort of brief, fruitful relationships that that he treasured for the spice, variety, and new insights they afforded into the world and the people who make their lives within it.

Dad was born during WWII, and was drafted into the Vietnam War, and I believe the effects these two conflicts had on him motivated his desire to live peacefully, to engage fruitfully with people from different backgrounds and with different perspectives, and to create art that could perhaps in some ways build relationships between people, and work counter to the forces that produced such awful conflicts.

Over the course of this coming year I'll be tying up the loose ends of the Poetic Matrix, contacting authors, and finishing up what I can of my dad's work. I appreciate the patience of all of the authors as we go through this process, since it will be some time to piece everything together.

We'll be celebrating dad's life on Saturday, March 22nd. If you knew my dad, or appreciated his work, and would like to share anything, please feel free to send a message or leave a comment, and we'll share them at the event. Thank you all for being part of my dad's life – I'm proud that he made so many good friends and shared so many voices in the course of his life.

- Devon

11/07/2024

I haven't posted in some time but we are still here. Our website is still here www.poeticmatrix.com. We have done some new books. I'll post more on this in the coming days. I hope all is well out there in Facebook land.

This is our fourth book together and that in-itself is an honor. Each book does what Alan Watts shows in one of his talks on Zen. Zen has no philosophy, it just points to the thing itself, satori - you can only have it. Through parables and poetry, a way is pointed, then you must have it. Raphael do

07/09/2022

There does seem to be a bit of loosening in the social environment as Covid settles down some. Public events are opening up. Though bookstores took a big hit during the pandemic and as a result our sales have taken a hit as well, we hope that it is loosening now. Public readings are beginning; I even did a reading at our local Art Center to a nice responsive crowd. I have joined the Art Center. A number of you have done Zoom readings during the pandemic, including Raphael Block and Joe Milosch, this is a nice venue. I hope it will continue. And I hope more public readings will increase. Go to www.poeticmatrix.com to see all of our title.

"The lyrics poured out of her like a hurt bird.”
Simon Waronker, about Jazz Singer Jules London

12/03/2021

Cloudbreak
Poetry by Heather Saunders Estes
114 pages, retail price $17.00
ISBN: 978-1-63649-690-0
Published by Poetic Matrix Press
www.poeticmatrix.com

To purchase Cloudbreak with PayPal and support the author go to,
Cloudbreak by Heather Saunders Estes (poeticmatrix.com)

\What others have said:
Cloudbreak is an act of San Francisco; kaleidoscope of fog and hills,
wooden back stairs, relic garden plantings, Monterey Cypress and
redwood trees. Heather Estes has created an intricate portrait of place quite separate from the version that appears in popular fiction. This is a recognizable ‘tetris’.
—Kim Shuck, 7th Poet Laureate of San Francisco

In Heather Saunders Estes’ book, Cloudbreak, her poems are full of wonder, conflict, love, and luminous insight. To the reader, the lyricism of her work comes across as a bittersweet conversation. In the end, one finds the strength of her work comes from her courageous honesty as she constructs poems that are as delicate as petals pressed onto the page.
—Joseph D. Milosch, author of Homeplate Was the Heart & Other Stories

As one of Heather’s former Planned Parenthood CEO colleagues, I’ve watched with wonder and delight as she has blossomed into an accomplished poet of depth and complexity. Her new book
demonstrates a deep understanding and exploration of the tangled relationships between our memories and our myths. As she says, “Perhaps memory doesn’t matter to truth.” This is the first book of poetry I have ever read straight through at a single sitting. I couldn’t stop.
—Linda Williams, President and CEO 416 Holdings

Author Biography
Heather Saunders Estes grew up in a small New England town. She and her husband drove their blue VW Bug to the Bay Area, sight unseen, 45 years ago. The blue jays looked different but crows, the same. Summer fog replaced winter snow. She lives in the Inner Sunset neighborhood of San Francisco with her professor-writer husband of 47 years and is sheltering-in-place with their biologist-writer daughter.
When Heather left her valued, long-term career as Chief Executive Officer of Planned Parenthood Northern California after 37 years, she transitioned to writing poetry. Poetry is laughter, reflection, appreciation, and a call to action. Cloudbreak is Heather's second book of poetry. Inner Sunset, her debut book, was published in 2019 by Blue Light Press.

Elegy for a Chief Executive Officer

The letter of resignation is on the desk.
Sparks escape only I can see.
Music by Two Steps from Hell,
and burning sage scents the air.

Who will I be when I am not a crusader,
not a good or evil fairy?
Who will I be when each late night call
doesn’t conjure break-ins, fire-bombs, gunmen?

After 37 years as a Planned Parenthood CEO
I choose to become born again—
spelunker, gardener, weaver, writer,
wiser inhabitant of my new chapter.

Monsters still exist to be slain or tamed,
golden rings to be unmade, or explained.
I was a culture warrior.
I came home alive

03/14/2021

Lee Underwood’s new title "Into Light" is available now. It is a work clearly written in Love and with Love for a Woman, Love of Music and musicians and Love that is the heritage of this Life that we all are graced with. Lee tells us of our journey, the one that so many of us have travel in this life of music, love, exploration, learning and seeking. He beautifully show this.

Press Release

"Into Light"
Poems By Lee Underwood
Published by Poetic Matrix Press
ISBN: 978-1-63649-698-6
Pages 154
Price $18.00

The Book
Nearly all of these poems were written in 2020, the year in which covid-19 moved from China, to Europe, to the United States—an amazing series of movements that changed our lives. Infections. Deaths. Face masks, distancing, personal isolation. Racial protests. Civic chaos. Global instability. We love, we care, we doubt, we fear. We scale the heights in our mind, sometimes succeed, sometimes fail, and always aspire to realize the best, the most hopeful, the most loving and empathic dimensions of ourselves. That is what most of these poems are about: the forever-shining jewel-center of the universal human heart.
—From the Introduction.

The Author
Lee Underwood played lead guitar with singer/songwriter Tim Buckley on seven of the nine albums Buckley released while alive. Underwood wrote extensively about music and musicians. His
articles, interviews and reviews appeared in dozens of periodicals
, including DownBeat.

Into Light is available through the author, Poetic Matrix Press, online at Bookshop.org, Amazon.com and at area bookstores. Review copies are available.

Clarity
Are you ready
To meet a stillness
You have never known before?
Pristine quietude,
No names, no labels,
No streaming images, no words—
Autumn leaves
Red, gold, yellow, orange,
Cool mist on cheeks,
A lone bird winging south . . .
Mind open,
Still and quiet,
Radiant and
Clear within;
Clear without . . .
Wordless spaciousness,
Seeing without language,
Direct perception—
A vast and cloudless
Deep blue mind-sky

01/31/2021

Here's our 3rd title from Patricia Nelson. She is a daring poet, full of that which makes poetry such a beautiful literature, spiritual quest, and expression of the ordinary. She was recently reviewed by Susan E. Gunter, Ph.D. in the Harvard Review. - John Peterson, Publisher

In the Language of Lost Light
by Patricia Nelson
116 pages, retail price $18.00
ISBN: 978-1-63649-707-5

"Once again, Patricia Nelson grips the conscience with things beyond our grasp, holds us tight in suggestion, white space, and open air. Here’s a study of the thin line between the essence and the interpreted, drawn out in quiet awe and wonder."—Jeff Santosuosso, Editor-in-Chief, Panoplyzine

Support your local bookstore, buy this book online at Bookshop.org.

01/14/2021

More and more we need the way that poetry keeps our language clear and connected to what is true and beautiful. At least that is what poetry means to me. Poetry is beautiful with something to say. What is true, connected to the beautiful.

10/03/2020

Special ways or get Poetic Matrix Press books. Go to www.poeticmatrix.com. Be safe, be healthy, order on-line, support the authors, support this press, support local bookstores.

Patricia Nelson has a new book coming out soon from Poetic Matrix Press, In the Language of Lost Light. Please support her by purchasing an advanced copy via this website. As soon as In the Language of Lost Light is released you will be the first to receive a copy. Go to Poetic Matirx Titles and typ...

08/23/2020

What Remains by Charles Entrekin
ISBN: 978-1-7337025-9-1
Price 17.00; pages 130

"This is what truly great writers – the great journalists, novelists, poets, playwrights – always do: they know their communities from the inside out, as full members, and they tell the truth about what they know. It is a family story filled with love, tenderness and forgiveness, that rises above the noise and into the mind and soul, evoking another landscape, both of feeling and place." Available www.poeticmatrix.com.

08/23/2020

Patricia Nelson has a new book coming out soon from Poetic Matrix Press, In the Language of Lost Light. Please support her by purchasing an advanced copy via this website. As soon as In the Language of Lost Light is released you will be the first to receive a copy. Go to https://www.poeticmatrix.com/titles.aspx type in In the Language of Lost Light, price is $17.00, no shipping fee. Patricia thanks you and we at the press thanks for your support.

06/13/2020

Homeplate Was the Heart & Other Stories has been submitted for the National Book Award.

This book is a collection of flash fiction exploring the lifelong struggle American immigrants endure to gain citizenship -- not the scholastic citizenship of a written exam, but the everyday tests society gives them. Joseph based these stories on his memories of my Irish and Polish grandparents and great uncles.

Home Plate Was the Heart & Other Stories
by Joseph D. Milosch
88 pages, $17.00
ISBN: 978-1-7337025-5-3

These stories are like the stitching that holds the cover on a baseball. What happens at home sets up what happens out in the field. “In Home Plate Was the Heart, batting practice trains characters for daily life with no off-season. How does the stitching affect the pitch? Will it hold? Even if you don’t love the game, but blood binds you to someone who does, this book is for you. - Brandon Cesmat author of Driven into the Shade, and When Pigs Fall & Other Stories.

Author Biography
Joe Milosch was born in 1947 in Detroit, Michigan and formally educated in the public schools and at San Diego State University. He has multiple nominations for the Pushcart and received the Mira CostaCollege Excellence in Literature award. He won the Tennessee Middle State University Chapbook Award and the Hackney Literary Award. He was the First Runner-Up for the Steve Kowit Award, a Semi-finalist in the 2018 Pangaea Prize for Poetry, and a finalist in the Tennessee Middle State University Chapbook Award.
His books of poetry are The Lost Pilgrimage Poems and Landscape of a Woman and a Hummingbird.