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In perhaps the largest, most eclectic volume of previously unpublished poetry in the history of Pacific Northwest literature, Matt Love presents 148 poems written over a 30-year span.

As he writes in the introduction to A Substantial but Incomplete Autobiography in Poems, “I have organized this collection into six categories: Ocean, Love, My Life, Oregon Tavern Age, Homelessness, Probation. These poems serve as a substantial but incomplete autobiography.”

“Confessionals, odes, scatological doggerel, polemics, tankas, haiku, prose, psalms, requiems, observations, love letters, lamentations, lyrics, stream of consciousness, meditations, lists, riffs, a eulogy, a sermon, a commencement speech, found poetry, tributes, elegies. I threw it all into an ancient cement mixer and hand cranked that concrete beast while watching blue herons undulate overhead and drinking red wine as the husky snoozed in his dirt fort. The result: A Substantial but Incomplete Autobiography in Poems, something merging where Charles Bukowski, Richard Hugo, Mary Oliver and Liz Phair blend together.”

None of Love's poems were ever submitted to poetry journals, contests or magazines, making this collection a true renegade project of passion and readable to any denizen of a coastal dive bar.

Oregon Tavern Age: Rotary Phone

Oregon Tavern Age: The Mooning

Sunday Horseshoes in the Park

Dad and “Dover Beach”

Splayed

Hope is Kindled by a Picnic Date

Second Vaccine Shot

Oregon Tavern Age: Steve Prefontaine Smiling

Of Dogs and Meaning Book Launch

Bleacher Ruminations

Daffodils with Dad

Oregon Tavern Age: Audition

Oregon Tavern Age: Manuscript

Easter Sunday Declarative Sentences

Aug. 14 Writing Workshop in Portland: Firing Up Your Writing Project

First Dandelion

A Last Pistol River Fort

An Unwanted Conversation

Bolo Tie, God and an AR-15

An Ending

First Vaccine Shot

What’s Happening to Me?

Nicknames for Dad

Idea for a Story: Elvis’ Dump Saves Rock and Roll

Possible Writing Workshop in Portland this Summer

Ruminations From a Deck

Oregon City Crime Against Literature Ass Kicking

Corona Virus Thoughts # 23

Portland Blues

An Encounter

A Segregation Story From Dad

My Mind While Tree Planting

Gifts I Received for My 57th Birthday

Memories of My Uncle Dale

Yo Lo Tengo in Reedsport

4000 and Counting: The Oregon Basketball Officiating Life of Dale Danner

The Sound of Rain

Goodbye to My Beaverwood Collection

Storytelling with Dad

Egret and the Homeless