Do or die. It is as simple as it sounds. Surviving rural Kansas is difficult, provisions are scarce and so are the supporters. To cross the threshold makes one a target for turmoil and a lifetime to create under the weight of expectations. This book is Cooper’s vessel between the ruins of the American dream to someplace, somewhere a bit more livable.

• Hevel Havalim, Carcinogen Racehorse Bassist, Error Collections CEO and Psychologist

This collection of poems is a raw transmission which burst from the guts of Matt Cooper. He has gathered it all and rejects nothing; not pain and not the violent storms that assail the heart. These are alchemised into poetry and shared in an unapologetic affirmation of life. Cooper sees through the knots and cruelties which block us. Forget the clock! Lessons in the heart are available here and now. Past encounters yield new understandings and dialogue regardless of time and distance. Life is not a game which ends. It is a lottery where every move bleeds into the next unveiling new dimensions and where ultimately nothing is discarded.

-Shaune Larder of Kansai Gaidai University, Osaka Japan

I’ve been a fan of Matthew Cooper’s work ever since he let his inner freak out. There are poems here that are, like Matt, badass with a side of 16 oz. Pabst Blue Ribbon grenades. He’s a WSU student where he’s one of those Garrison Keillor-like English majors. He dreams of one day having a family in Japan, but for now he lives in Newton, Kansas, where he’s an inspired voice for the working person just trying to make it through.

-Jeff Guy, Kansas Writer and Journalist

With a kind of everyday mysticism that is akin to Jason Isbell ( Last of My Kind ), Matt Cooper sings on the page as if, like Robert Johnson, he’s made a deal with the devil for his gift.

-Kevin Rabas, Poet Laureate of Kansas, 2017-2019, More Than Words