Mindless Body Spineless Mind

Description

There is a place where poetry and prose, humour and lyricism meet and seamlessly interweave. This is not that place. This is a place of unjustifiable juxtapositions, awkward opposites and curious chaffing. Which is also good.

Inside are poems about fossils and pandas, busses and cryogenics, stories about altered states, self-defence and intercessionary meteorology. A brother and sister play Scrabble for custody of their father’s ashes. The manager of an over-35s football team has a difficult conversation with his centre forward. These co-exist with an onomatopoeic tennis poem – Thwok! – a flotsam and jetsam love song and a story in verse called The Hideous Bloat.

Inside is a book-within-a book, Strange Creatures Meeting illustrated by Claudia Schmid. Poems inspired by Claudia’s work, sit beside drawings inspired by Matt’s poems. Without this, the book would be fine but vaguely unsatisfying. With it, the whole thing is strange and wonderful.