Poet Profile

Matthew M. Cariello

Matt Cariello’s two books of poems, A Boat That Can Carry Two (2011) and Talk (2019) were both published by Bordighera Press. He’s had stories, poems and reviews published in Voices in Italian Americana, Poet Lore, Ovunque Siamo, Evening Street Review, Modern Haiku, Frogpond, The Heron’s Nest, The Long Story, Indiana Review, The Ekphrastic Review, Modern Poetry Quarterly Review, Typehouse, and The Journal. Originally from New Jersey, he’s currently a senior lecturer in the English department at OSU in Columbus.

Awards and Other Honors:

The Bordighera Poetry Prize (2010); The Lauria/Frasca Poetry Prize, 2019.

Books Published:

A Boat That Can Carry Two / Una barca per due, Bordighera Press 2011; Talk, Bordighera Press, 2020.

her third birthday
tulips bend
under a light snow

lunar eclipse
footprints of geese
in the snow

gibbous moon
that fig-thief squirrel
is taken by the hawk

raking leaves
I think of my father
thinking of his father

crowded subway
on an old woman’s wrist
tattooed numbers

fiftieth birthday
my shadow
by nightlight

Credits:

"her third birthday" - The Heron’s Nest XI:2 (2009); "gibbous moon" - Frogpond 31:2 (2008); "crowded subway" - Simply Haiku 6:4 (2008); "lunar eclipse" - Acorn 21 (2008); "raking leaves" - Wisteria 13 (2009); "fiftieth birthday" - Modern Haiku 40:2 (2009).