Dear Readers: I just read a review about my memoir, Ahead of the Flaming Front: A Life on Fire, which I quote as it appears: If you are going to read memoirs about fire fighters, here are the two you must start with: Young Men and Fire by Norman McLean and Ahead of the Flaming …
Read More “Writing, Fighting Fire, and Your Pal, Jerry”
Sorry for the pop up. I am learning slowly. Please enjoy this video essay for SPACESLIT MAG Writers Reading: Jerry D. Mathes II.
Hello Friends; Please check out my latest lyric essay at Guernica Daily. Just in time for Easter.
Here is the title essay from my essay collection, Fever and Guts: A Symphony as it appeared in the wonderful Dos Passos Review. For the book I broke the essay into its four movements and spaced them throughout the book. Section I begins the book and IV ends as one would expect in doing this. …
Read More “A Symphony in Essay Form”
The past coils into our guts like a snake. The longer we live the tighter it coils to contain its length and girth. Always at its center resides the sins of our youth and along its body the tumors of our mistakes and missteps. Some maybe