Reviews
of Buddha Box
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“‘All fire, ready
to take and not worry if it offends,’ writes Gretchen Mattox in this Zen-supple,
hungrily-burning collection of poems. This is LA, this is the Buddha Box, these
are the lineaments of joy and detachment set, raging jewel in lotus, before
us. Pink skies, astral bodies, saguaros, gas stations, love, grief—all
the desperate and divine details appear in order to disappear, as they are masterfully
chanted in this extraordinary voice.”
—Carol Muske-Dukes
“As subversive in its simplicity as any truly American Buddhism, or as
any truly feminine anything, the poetry in Buddha Box is both radical
and beautiful; both unflinching and consoling. These poems contain joy and promote
love but never at the expense of complexity, precision, inventiveness, or the
recognition of loss. Gretchen Mattox is absolutely original in her strategy
of bringing Zen mind to the down-and-out human landscape of West Los Angeles.
Her resulting discoveries are quite often simply brilliant. Buddha Box is filled
with light.”
—Gail Wronsky