"View From the Fire Tower"

By Matt Smythe

I’m reminded of a poem by Gary Snider,
written while he was a fire lookout in the North Cascades.

Months at a time he’d spend in service and solitude.
Thinking.

From six stories up, I can see the attraction.
Sprawling topography of mountainsides and valleys, so much

softer from this height, stitched one to the other in shades of green,
patchwork blanket of pine and hardwoods. Hawks rising

higher and higher on thermals, still suspended far below. Candid
conversations with the wind. Graceful, shifting, gigantic

balance of dawn’s hue and starry dusk.
Active meditation on a passive existence. This tower,

like his, the center of it's own universe, one
of billions of centers each revolving around each.

Tribes gathering in celebration.
A choir looking skyward for its voice.

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Matt Smythe hails 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, where this poem first appeared.

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What’s happening at VetRep…

Listen to our interview this week with Mike Schropp on the Savage Wonder Podcast.

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VetRep is thrilled to present “God of Carnage” by Yazmina Reza for the month of September. A playground altercation between eleven-year-old boys brings together two sets of Brooklyn parents for a meeting to resolve the matter. At first, diplomatic niceties are observed, but as the meeting progresses, and the rum flows, tensions emerge and the gloves come off, leaving the couples with more than just their liberal principles in tatters.

Tickets have been selling out, reserve yours early before they’re gone!

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We are currently offering multiple dates for our online Playwriting for Veterans classes, and our Acting for Beginners class is now being offered weekly every Saturday from 10am-12pm. Scholarships for qualifying veterans, as well as multi-class passes are available. Registration details can be found here.