The Three Wise Men of Dope - This Ain't no Holiday Inn: Down and Out at the Chelsea Hotel 1980-1995 - page 96

Marty Matz: Poet/Smuggler
ThethirdChelseaBeatwriter,thepoetMartyMatz,publishedthebooks Pipe Dreams, Time
Waits, and In the Seasons of My Eye. An issue of the Beat journal Goodie Magazine was
devoted to Matz. Aside from his writing, Matz was well-known for his bad luck, some of
which earned him a couple of years in a notorious Mexican prison. But just as heartbreak-
ing, his wanderlust spoiled his chance at fame. After hanging out in San Francisco's Little
Italy (now North Beach) with the Beat writers before they had made their names, Matz left
town. His timing couldn't have been worse. He departed the day before the now legendary
reading at 6 Gallery on Fillmore Street, where Ginsberg read “Howl” and Kerouac shouted
encouragement from the corner, the single reading that brought attention to the young poets
and launched the writing careers of Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Phillip Whalen, and Michael
McClure. Matz could have been part of it all, but the day before, he had left for Mexico.
Matz was an enormous man with big appetites, one of which was for drugs. This pro-
clivity, combined with his being an inveterate world-traveler, often led him to the opium
fields of Thailand or Burma. His poem “The Alchemist's Song,” included in his book Pipe
Dreams isanodetoopium.Matzhobnobbedwithshamansandmedicinemenfromcultures
worldwide.AccordingtowriterJohnMajorJenkins,anothervisionaryandinterpreterofan-
cientsacredtexts,“In1961anunknownAzteccodexwasrevealedtoBeatpoetandexplorer
Marty Matz byaMazatec shaman inthe mountains ofOaxaca, Mexico. This codex presents
a profound metaphysical teaching describing how the end of time will bring about a vision-
ary ascent. At the behest of his Mazatec teacher, Matz transcribed this pictorial codex into a
literary form that would preserve its initiatory teachings and reveal its secret meanings to a
wider audience.” The topic is now called The Pyramid of Fire: The Lost Aztec Codex.