Of life of innocence

 
 
By Vijay Phanshikar :
 
“My poems are my prayers are my poems 
are my prayers ...”
-  Mathew McConaughey,
Oscar-Award winning actor, 
in his latest book
‘Poems & Prayers’ 
 
 

Simple words, of course, but they communicate the communion between the poet and the Lord within. Mathew McConaughey is much more than an actor winning world acclaim. He is an author, a poet, a thinker and an undeclared torch-bearer of romantic school of living. Tired of logic-focused world view, he felt mesmerised by the enchanting aspects of life -- full of faith and dreams, and of course, poetry as an expression of all those cumulative emotions. The poems in ‘Poems & Prayers’ have been written over a long period of 36 years. Each of those fine expressions talks of a belief as an endearing dimension of human mind. Mathew McConaughey also feels that movement from logic to dreams is a compelling journey.

 

 

For, as he feels, it is hard to rely solely on logic -- so he wishes to “dream our way to reality”, bridging poems and prayers. So, My poems are my prayers are my poems are my prayers ... ! True, hard-boiled intellectuals would not appreciate the McConaughey idea of life. For them, life is full of vagaries, dipped in grief, stretched by stress, distorted by defeat, bloated by victory ... ! So, life has to be lived on the hard ground of reality. But then, they may not take time out to ponder over that Mathew McConaughey also wants to say the same things -- in the sense life is beyond hard logic because of its vagaries and victories and vicissitudes that suck one into an emotional boil.

 

To such people who hold a logic-focused world view, Mathew McConaughey says, (in the collection’s ‘Faith and Doubt section) “We need skeptics, not cynics; one is discerning, the other doesn’t believe”. So, cynics are to be discarded. May faith rule the roost, the poet insists -- damning “half-cocked logic”. When the collection was out, many felt that it was one of those celeb-books. That view did not hold for long. Mathew McConaughey’s poems caught connoisseurs’ fancy. His media interviews became a rage. For, the man came out so openly in favour of a life of faith, belief, poetry, dreams. In other words, Mathew McConaughey professes innocence as the core value of life.