Almost Home

Adrian Matejka's 'Almost Home' is a single-stanza narrative lyric that follows the figure of Beat poet Bob Kaufman through San Francisco's streets while juxtaposing the speaker's Midwestern roots in Indianapolis.

The poem blends portraiture, cultural observation, and regional contrast, using dense sonic play and connected phrasing to evoke city rhythms and memory.

Matejka evokes Kaufman's historical significance, silence, and exile while meditating on urban change, affordability, and racial geography.

The work showcases Matejka's interest in poets of place and witness, and his use of an unbroken stanza creates a relentless, walking music that mirrors the poem's wandering speaker.

Published in The New Yorker, it also appears as a new poem in his forthcoming selected collection.