FIRST LIGHT
At first light I returned to where we had last seen blood. A sparkling sheen of frost on the fields, thin ice on standing water, and my...
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Matt Smythe
Nov 21, 2016
THE RANGE OF OUR UNIVERSE
Aleida shot her first deer, a healthy 2 year old four-pointer, during archery season last year. It was her first trip into the woods as a...
Matt Smythe
Feb 2, 2016
GIVE ME TRAILS
Over the course of a summer of running trails in my favorite park in upstate NY, I had pretty much written a poem in my head. When I...
Matt Smythe
Dec 2, 2015
DECEMBER SECOND
Right outside the back door a Plume Moth is gently perched on the siding. Unique, tiny, and intriguing, but out of context. “It’s...
Matt Smythe
Sep 4, 2015
BRECKENRIDGE
In just a short couple weeks, I’ll be heading out to Colorado for the 2015 Breckenridge Film Festival. As some of you may already know,...
Matt Smythe
Jul 25, 2015
HARDWOODS
I unearthed my old grad school poet’s notebook this morning. Cracking the cover, I found a sheaf of paper that held several iterations of...
Matt Smythe
Apr 1, 2015
HUSH FOR ONE SECOND
hush for one second I said hold still what do you hear I asked geese wind everything then off they went
Matt Smythe
Feb 10, 2015
LYRIC
look out from the mountain hear her voice giant and sprawling a song going on & on in pine and sky her inspiration far closer than her...
Matt Smythe
Dec 31, 2014
PEACE, REGARDLESS
I sing my wisdomless parable to the again changing season. To the birds’ hushed morning selves. To the gathering blanket of snow. To the...
Matt Smythe
Apr 3, 2014
SPRING COMMITS
shifting thumbprint wandering at dawn higher arc of lightrise laying claim to shadows in the woods connection of connections swollen...
Matt Smythe
Jan 17, 2014
LAST NIGHT. THIS MORNING.
This morning an intricate and careless strata of clouds carried the orange, orange-yellow-red of sunrise. Its light reaching into the...
Matt Smythe
Jan 4, 2014
TRACKS IN JANUARY SNOW
I turn to head back inside pressing new steps into the snow different than the ones that brought me here
Matt Smythe
Nov 18, 2013
THIS EVENING IN MY TREE STAND
Today ended with the slow abandon of light that only early November knows–sky blue sky and orange-bellied clouds rusting into purple,...
Matt Smythe
May 17, 2013
DEAR ALASKA
(fp note: since this piece was published as my submission to the TU Blogger Tour competition, I was selected by a panel of magazine...
Matt Smythe
Apr 16, 2013
STILL AT IT
December 24th of 2011 I wrote a post titled WHY 2012 WILL BE BIG. I wrote about my (then) recent diagnosis of Tourette Syndrome and all...
Matt Smythe
Nov 23, 2011
LONG HAUL
And sometimes you throw a punch that starts from your toes and finishes with you standing over him saying get up…I’m not done with you yet.
Matt Smythe
Oct 25, 2011
TRACKING DAD’S DEER
I had just walked back from my stand to the truck to meet the kids. Dressed in sweatshirts, jeans, muck boots and still sporting...
Matt Smythe
Sep 26, 2011
FOR THOSE FOLLOWING ALONG AT HOME
Two years have now officially passed since my first blog post. It’s been a great ride so far, and I consider myself fortunate to have the...
Matt Smythe
Aug 15, 2011
VIEW FROM THE FIRE TOWER
I’m reminded of a poem by Gary Snyder, written while a fire lookout in the North Cascades. Months at a time he’d spend in service and...
Matt Smythe
May 18, 2011
WEEKEND SORTIES
The school bus comes every weekday morning at twelve after eight. It stops out front of the house, pausing traffic in both directions for...
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