To Cut
by Robin Moss
Robin Moss has an MA in linguistics and writes poetry and short fiction. She lives in the Midwest with her husband, three sons and three cats. She teaches and organizes writing courses and craft-focused literature discussions for dedicated writers outside the academic writing community.
What surprising, fascinating stuff can you tell us about the origin, drafting, and/or final version of “To Cut”? This poem was inspired by a discussion of particulars and universals in The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell, which says: “When, for example, we hear the sentence, ‘Charles I’s head was cut off’, we may naturally enough think of Charles I, of Charles I’s head, and of the operation of cutting off his head, which are all particulars; but we do not naturally dwell upon what is meant by the word ‘head’ or the word ‘cut’, which is a universal.” I read that and thought, Well, what happens if we do dwell upon the word “cut?”
Check out the write-up of the journal in The Writer.
Matter Press recently released titles from Meg Boscov, Abby Frucht, Robert McBrearty, Tori Bond, Kathy Fish, and Christopher Allen. Click here.
Matter Press is now offering private flash fiction workshops and critiques of flash fiction collections here.
Submissions
Poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction/prose poetry submissions are now closed. The reading period for standard submissions opens again September 15, 2025. Submit here.
Upcoming
05/04 • Leath Tonino
05/11 • Chris Pellizzari
05/18 • Chris Clemens
05/25 • Clayton Eccard
06/01 • TBD
06/08 • TBD
06/15 • TBD
06/22 • TBD
06/29 • TBD
07/06 • TBD
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07/20 • TBD
07/27 • TBD
08/03 • TBD
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08/31 • TBD
09/07 • TBD
09/14 • TBD
09/21 • TBD