Clive Matson has read his poems live at various venues since his days with the Beat Generation on New York’s Lower East Side in the 1960s. He read in the coffee shops of New York, including Blind Justice run by his friend Alex Raybin, and St. Marks Church. On relocating to the Bay Area in 1969, Clive continued his reading forays, using the process to test audience response to new works as he continued to edit his material. Clive has been a featured reader over the years at The Beat Museum in North Beach, Piano Fight, Sparring with Beatnik Ghosts, the Berkeley Art House and Gallery and Sacred Grounds Cafe as well as many other poetry venues and bookstores. He often reads with the accompaniment of cellist Gael Alcock.
Hello, Paradise. Paradise, Goodbye.
Selections from the epic poem are being read in various in-person and online poetry venues, including Sacred Grounds Open Mic, North Bay Poetics, and Coastside Poetry. Treating the subject of climate change and the state of the world today, it is a poem with a global as well as local viewpoint. It is the first epic poem since the publication of William Carlos Williams’s Paterson in the 1950s and stands on the broad shoulders of the Modernist poets who are its predecessors. Check back for more details. (more)
First Saturdays with Clive Matson
Held at the Frank Bette Center for the Arts in Alameda, CA. Currently on hiatus. Check back for details.
POETRY SALOON (drunk on poetry!)
Meets online the second Friday of every month. Reading begins at 7:30pm. Bring poems by you and/or others to share, or come just to enjoy. For more information see the Poetry Saloon page.
PAST READINGS BY CLIVE
Alameda CA, March 2 2019
Les Instant Chavires, Paris, Sept 21 2017
Clive reads an excerpt from “Hello Paradise, Paradise Goodby”
Berkeley CA, October 4 2016
Clive reads “You Have To Cry” from the Chalcedony cycle.
Berkeley CA, June 5 2016
Harbin Hot Springs benefit at the Art House Gallery and Cultural Center, Berkeley
Quiet Lightning 2.0 Reading at Public Works, January 2011
Clive reads “You Have To Cry And I’ve Joined The Fearful.”
Babylon Salon at Cantina, December 4 2010
Clive Matson reads “Dropped From The Sky” accompanied by Gael Alcock on cello.
Berkeley Poetry Slam Dec. 30, 2009
Clive Matson reads “Chalcedony’s Song Twelve (You Don’t Know How Much You Are Loved)” accompanied by Gael Alcock on cello.
Diesel Bookstore, March 11 2009
Clive reads”Snow White” and “Morning &” from Mainline To The Heart And Other Poems.