Description:
Alex taught me how to make this in my dreams for you
when he was being King of the Jews in his joy
for all the dancers who danced in the desert
and knew only love.
Brief description: Matthew Lippman is the author of 7 poetry collections. His collection Mesmerizingly Sadly Beautiful (2020) was the recipient of the 2018 Levis Prize. He lives in Boston where he teaches English Literature and Creative Writing.
Review Quotes:
How does one respond to the terror of Oct 7? For Matthew Lippman, it's through poetry. In King of the Jews, Lippman names many who perished, were kidnapped, held hostage. He names friends, students, rock stars, too. Lippman honors-and loves-them all. He even anoints them king, King of the Jews. Whether talking with his dog on the morning six hostages were found murdered or with Chabad boys on the ferry to Ellis Island, Lippman takes us straight to the heat, the "center of the earth ... the center of the name." These poems hold the beauty and the horror of the world and the deep longing, living within Lippman's naked, aching heart. From Brooklyn to Brookline, Jerusalem to the Golan Heights, we all share one joy, one pain: "No matter what you do as a Jew / you grieve as a Jew." Hail, hail, King of the Jews. Matthew Lippman, Kol Hakavod.
-Diane Gottlieb, editor of Manna Songs: Stories of Jewish Culture & Heritage
Matthew Lippman has long been my poet king- for making me feel seen and heard, remembered and alive, for his rock-n-roll hand in laughter and sadness, and for his unique ability to do through poetry "what kings do/they make people see what their best selves can be." Once again, if impossibly, Lippman manages to revive the human spirit with Kings of the Jews. Here is a lyrical, post 10/7 Book of Lamentations-a book that did not want to be written, should never have been written, but which pours, dirge-like, from every crack in the grieving poet's heart, spilling out, name by name, story by story, song by doleful song, into the diasporic aftermath of this darkest day in recent memory, urging us amid the continued horror "to remember that we are all people, and we must not forget."
-Sara Lippmann, author of Leech.