Details from Audible:
Poems & Prayers
Written by
Narrated by
About this listen
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the Academy Award–winning actor and author of Greenlights comes an inspiring, faith-filled, and often hilarious collection of personal poetry and prayers about navigating the rodeo of life and chasing down the original dream, belief.
My prayers are my poems are my prayers.
I’ve always relied on logic to make sense of myself and the world.
A prescriptionist at heart, I’ve always looked to reason to find the rhyme, the practical to get to the mystical, the choreography to find the dance, the proof to get to the truth, and reality to get to the dream.
I’ve been finding that tougher to do lately. It’s more than hard to know what to believe in; it’s hard to believe.
But I don’t want to quit believing, and I don’t want to stop believing in . . . humanity, you, myself, our potential.
I think it’s time for us to flip the script on what’s historically been our means of making sense, and instead open our aperture to enchantment and look to faith, belief, and dreams for our reality.
Let’s sing more than we might make sense, believe in more than the world can conclude, get more impressed with the wow instead of the how, let inspiration interrupt our appointments, dream our way to reality, serve some soul food to our hungry heads, put proof on the shelf for a season, and rhyme our way to reason.
Forget logic, certainty, owning, or making a start-up company of it; let’s go beyond what we can merely imagine, and believe, in the poetry of life.
What the critics say
“Imagine a country-and-western song that stops in at every bar on Saturday night before finding itself in the pew on Sunday morning, and you’re halfway there. This is wisdom earned the hard way and repaid with compound interest . . . So much in his book is memorable . . . No more frisky—or well-intentioned—volume will grace the best-seller lists this season.”—Pico Ayer, Air Mail
“Utterly confident. . . . These verses unlocked joy.”—Texas Monthly
“Beguiling . . . likely to be the bestselling book of poetry published this year.”—The Washington Post
“Some [poems] are funny, some are jagged, many are uncomfortably honest. . . . That willingness to laugh at himself might be what gives Poems and Prayers its unexpected charm. . . . . McConaughey isn’t selling solutions. He’s documenting a wrestle. And somehow, that honesty feels like the most convincing testimony of all.”—Relevant
“A joy.”—Vulture
“Poems & Prayers is like Bob Dylan riding shotgun with Billy Graham on a road trip through the soul.”—Greg McKeown, New York Times bestselling author of Essentialism and Effortless
Initial Thoughts:
I loved McConaughey’s first book, Greenlights (sadly the review is on my old website) and was excited to listen to this. So of course there was never any doubt I would listen to this, I do dearly love an author who reads there own book and as I am still in the non-fiction phase of my life this fit right in.
Main Points:
This book is very short just over 2.5 hours and while I normally listen to audio books at 1.2 speed, for this (and because I love his voice) I had it at normal speed. I don’t listen (or read) much poetry, it’s not that I don’t like it I just suppose I got out of the habit of it and when I was doing my English degree at MUN I did read a lot of poetry and a lot of it was very dry, and of course epic poetry (try reading “The Iliad”!) is incredibly difficult to get through but I digress. While a lot of his poetry is good, I enjoyed this book the best when he just talks about life and his memories, lessons he’s learned and fun/bizarre/interesting experiences he’s had.
For example I love a good story about pot and the fact that he listened to a song so many times that he missed his own birthday party because he was too stoned, hilarious and interesting. I agree that’s too stoned and you need to either switch to a different weed or cut back. He says some really profound stuff about aging I could relate to. He said when you’re over 50 you’re in the Thursday of your life and I can see myself there now at 49. It’s one of the things about life, you love the weekend but you know it’s short and Monday isn’t far away, I’m not sure if that’s exactly what he meant but it’s what I take away from it.
Other things are far less profound, like a poem about taking a dump in a port-a-potty, really Matthew? It was funny but I’m sure something better could have been put in. I have a hard time relating when he talks about kids and religion but other people may feel differently. He talked about how the reason he can be so relaxed is because he is always prepared and gets to any appointment an hour early, which excessive but I do see the freedom in always having extra time. He also does a good job summarizing what he talked about in “Greenlights” and connecting this book to it. It is certainly a feat for anyone to publish a book of poetry (he calls them hymns and/or prayers throughout the book at times) and have it appeal to a wide audience. I will certainly say that as poetry goes it is very accessible and he does them in a relatable way, most of the time, with down to earth language.
Final Thoughts:
Anyone who reads this blog knows I love a southern accent and it is Matthew McConaughey (whom I’ve always liked) so he’s instantly off to a good start. I enjoyed his first book more but this is a solid entry and I really hope he does more. Taking inspiration from his journal and going right from the time he was a teenager to now was a great idea and I agree you can’t become cynical about the world, that’s not living, that’s a slow death. I give this a solid 8 out of 10 and a strong recommendation. There is some coarse language and mature themes, so I would say ages 16+. Anyone who read/listened to his first book needs to pick this up and I think anyone else who is interested in modern poetry with some southern wisdom would also do well by this. McConauhey does a great job reading this, he has a great voice and while his laughter and can be annoying, the best moments are when it’s like your in the room with him and he’s just talking to you, it feels very intimate at times and his reactions are very honest and off-the-cuff, which I loved.