Eyes to the Sun Background

Eyes to the Sun Background

In this clip, Matias provides background on his poem “Eyes to the Sun” and discusses the similarities between smallpox and AIDS.

David Matias Papers

Elizabeth Huth Coates Library Special Collections, Trinity University

Materials in this collection are the intellectual property of Coates Library and Trinity University. Please contact the library for permission to reproduce or reuse these materials.

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There's a smallpox cemetery in Provincetown I wrote a poem about that's in Provincetown Arts Magazine, which is an annual that just came out. And it's about how the shame about smallpox back then, which we now may even smile about, but these people were outcasts. They were put outside of Provincetown. They died, and as they died they were buried without their name because of the shame they didn't want a surname on the gravestone, so they were number 1, 2, 3, 4. And a few of them still exist, there's about 5 or 6 granite markers with number 7, number 10, and it is a very powerful place to go visit. I was fortunate to visit the cemetery and was able to write about it, and just thought, "this was 175 years ago," and we were still... you know what I mean? See we repeat this pattern of fear and pushing it away and putting a diseased outcast rather than trying to tackle the problem or be compassionate about the problem and ask the bigger questions: What does life mean? What does death mean? Which is something that most people are very fearful of exploring.

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1 minute 9 seconds