Certified Listener Poet,
Cohort 13 Winter 2026
Cory Mattos is a collaborative typewriter artist. People of all types resonate with his authentically genuine presence whether they feel invisible and tired or curious, nostalgic, and energized. You can find him visiting quirky cafes and venues near his Vermont home with his vintage typewriter and scally cap, creating individualized bespoke poems that make his poemees feel seen, heard, and safely held. He is a Certified Listener Poet with The Good Listening Project, supporting the humans in healthcare. He curates a unique interpersonal experience that is healing, both for himself and his readers.
Cory’s passion for poetry found him in a dark place in desperate need for catharses to channel intense emotional energy. Poetry has been his coping mechanism. In order to make sense of his own health crises, and to make the painful work of survival relevant, his poetry turned outward. Every chance to be present with people, seeing and meeting them where they are, validates his turbulent years of suffering and healing with meaning and purpose.
Overcoming the discomfort of being raw and vulnerable in public, Cory began his work as a street poet in 2022. He is grateful to his poemees and readers for giving him a reason for doing the work it takes to heal and exist. A poem is not complete without a reader, and the title “poet” is a bestowal, like a nickname. He sees his role as that of a lens that reflects and refracts. As two humans interacting, you inhabit the places where ideas come from and the poem practically writes itself.
The themes that keep showing up in his works are hope, clarity, insight, journey. The entire metaphysic spectrum that is the human psyche. His catalogue of poems has grown to such gargantuan proportions that it begs him to compile a compendium. He is working on a book of poems that will bring the therapeutic experience of collaborative poetry to more readers.