Matthew McConaughey had some sweet advice for married couples in a new poem titled “Smaller Beds.”
“The best thing you can / do for your / marriage,” the actor wrote in his new poetry book titled Poems & Prayers which hit shelves on Tuesday, September 16. “One way to surely / get ahead, / is get rid of that / king-size mattress, / and sleep in a / queen-size bed.”
McConaughey must be speaking from experience, as he’s been married to wife Camila Alves since 2012. The couple share three kids: Levi, 17, Vida, 15, and Livingston, 12.
“Smaller Beds” wasn’t the only piece of work where McConaughey got personal. In an untitled musing, the Oscar winner reflected on balancing his relationship and career.
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“The measurements of importance in my life are / my health, my family, my marriage, my career, / and my relationship with God. I’m / always having to recalibrate and adjust the / gauges to maintain balance,” he penned. “My career’s taking off and taking all my time? Whoops, / relationship with my family and God starts / slipping into the red. My kids and I are each / other’s favorite people and my six pack’s / ripped? Probably need to spend more time / with my wife.”
McConaughey then compared maintaining his connection to Alves to keeping his car in good condition to keep it running smoothly.
“And because I don’t want to / let any of those go too far south, I have to / take inventory, and recalibrate,” he continued. “Remember / those Alpine car stereo equalizers in the / 1980s? Life’s a balancing act and you’ve / gotta keep re-tuning your equalizer to stay / out of the red.”
McConaughey also wrote a poem titled “Certainly,” where he recounted a moment when he did something selfishly.
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“Out to confront instead of restore, / I’ve been confusing selfish for certain. / Locked behind my dictator’s door, / the insecurity of combat’s curtain. / Always competing for the win, / I need more care and consideration,” he wrote. “To make some space for sin to swim, / would be fair in correlation. / I know I’m seldom wrong, / but there’s more than one way to be right. / Others deserve a chance to belong, / especially my wife.”
Ahead of the release of Poems & Prayers, McConaughey opened up about his inspiration to publish another book. (McConaughey released his bestselling memoir, Greenlights, in 2020.)
“Filled with faith-driven reflections, raw honesty and moments of humor that explore what it means to live, love, and believe, Poems & Prayers is more than a book,” he said in July. “It’s a memory — a place where we can rediscover what we’ve lost, celebrate what remains and maybe even leave behind what no longer serves us.”
