Poems & Prayers
By Matthew McConaughey
McConaughey questions how we can keep faith in humanity when truth feels increasingly hard to separate from illusion. “With an epidemic of half-cocked logic and illusions being sold as sound conclusions, it’s more than hard to know what to believe in; it’s hard to believe.”
He writes, “I’m not ready for my conscience to retreat… I often find myself walking away from all the knowledge and reality more confused… As a people, we don’t seem to be perceiving properly, which means we are not desiring properly, which means we are not understanding properly, and as long as we don’t understand properly, we’re not going to act properly.”
He offers poems and prayers as a way of looking beyond what can be proven; a way of reconnecting with what we value. “Forget logic, certainty… let’s go beyond what we can merely imagine and believe, in the poetry of life.”
William Faulkner once described the poet’s role in similar terms:
“It is [a poet’s] privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet’s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.”
Here are two of my favorite poems from his book <3
Heartline
Pg 88
I've been running from my soul
skating on the surface
seeking transformation
through transactions of a purchase.
It's a one way street to everything at all
a lead pipe cinch for not far to fall
it'll never get me high enough to see what's down below
I'm gonna need more elevation
to heartline my show.
Tips Included
Pg 96-97
When extra credit's included
credit doesn't get its due,
when more gives us less
the exchange rate's gone askew.
When amnesty's offered
going into the crime,
we're more bound to commit it
because there is no fine.
We start playing to tie
instead of going for the win,
when participation's the trophy
for every cow in the pen.
If I stay on the porch
because you picked up the slack,
when you look over your shoulder
I can't have your back.
If there is no curfew
we'll stay out all night,
no tab at our bar
we get drunk and start a fight.
All these long lenses
got us losing our sight,
you keep liftin' it for me
I'll lose all my might.
When a four-star duty
suits a six-star rate,
we take our hands off the wheel
and rely on fate.
Eating all we can
at the all-we-can-eat buffet,
gives us a 3.8 education
and a 4.2 GPA.
We steal from ourselves
and get away with the scam,
what's the measure of merit
with less give a damn?
These unlimited options
sure have me confused,
while all the conveniences
keep me properly lubed.
In this red-light district
with the whore of inflation,
the ROI's math
don't pay for vacation.
So let's just admit it,
this extra credit's quite a fluffer,
cus when the tip's included
the service will suffer.
In Tips Included, McConaughey takes aim at a culture that keeps lowering the bar. When everything is already included, the real work (and the real value) disappears.