The Magnificent Vanishing Act

Read two poems from this book, and an interview with the author, on the Valley Press blog.

With his first collection, Matt Riker takes us on a journey where we cannot be sure if we're awake or dreaming – if what we perceive is real or imagined. Circling love and family, nature and society, science and mythology, these poems bring both the surprising and the miraculous into sharp focus. But like words, all things are subject to change – some are lost, others gained. Riker looks inwards and outwards, to distant places and times, to the essence of consciousness. In poems both personal and philosophical, the intimate and the cerebral are entwined with the richness and ambiguity of existence.