"Naknek August"
By Matt Smythe
Floating slowly across the shallows,
the imprints of bear and moose
are preserved in the gravel-mud bottom.
Arteries between a brush-tangled island
and rolling green-gold tundra.
The just of mountains on the horizon
one beyond the other
in distinct pastel layers.
It takes a half-mile of progress
in the boat to change their positions
below the blue sky.
When the engine stops and our wake
slips softly away, we notice
just how complete the quiet is.
How there is nothing at all.
Talking seems disrespectful.
Here, ‘luqruuyak. Pike and their teeth.
Elsewhere, taryaqvak, qakiiyaq, sayak,
talaariq, amaqaayak, iqallugpik, culugpauk.
Each and indigenous story returning
to home water. A month past the midnight sun,
the pure spread of stars is close
enough now to swirl your finger through
by eleven-thirty. Nights are beginning
their burdensome return. In my dream
I have come from the wilderness
to the wilderness. Here, awake at the river
before dawn, I breathe deeply
with new lungs. The only sound
is wolves howling.
Matt Smythe from the Finger Lakes region of western New York. An Army veteran and lifelong outdoorsman, Matt suffers from an inability to sit still. If he’s not in the woods, or on the water, he’s scheming ways to get there. His work has appeared in Free Range American, Gray’s Sporting Journal, the Fly Fish Journal, The Drake, Southern Culture on the Fly, Revive, Midcurrent, TROUT Magazine, and a handful of other non-outdoors-related magazines and literary journals. He recently published a book of poetry with Dead Reckoning Collective titled Revision of a Man.
Follow Matt’s blog, Glorious Mayhem here.
What’s happening at VetRep…
Mark your calendars for May 15th, and join Hudson Valley Gives in support of VetRep, as we create a program for jobs and apprenticeships. View our page here.
Listen to our latest episode with Lois Hicks-Wozniak on the Savage Wonder Podcast, where we interview incredibly talented musicians, artists, writers, and theater professionals, who also happen to be veterans.
Join us at the Parlor for a performance of Noel Coward’s Private Lives. Generally regarded as one of the most sophisticated, entertaining plays ever written, Private Lives is the story of Elyot and Amanda, once married and now honeymooning with new spouses at the same hotel, who meet by chance, and hilarity (as well as passion, anger, romance and aggravation) ensues. A uniquely humorous play, it has boasted numerous successful Broadway runs with stars like Coward himself, Laurence Olivier, Tallulah Bankhead, Gertrude Lawrence, Tammy Grimes, Richard Burton, and Elizabeth Taylor. The evening will open with veteran playwright Gavin Kayner's ten-minute play TWO PERSONS SINGULAR and then be followed by an intermission. Seating is limited and shows sell out fast, so get your tickets here.