Viewed from the Keel of a Canoe: Poetry for Gifting

Viewed from the Keel of a Canoe: Poetry for Gifting December 10, 2016

Gentleman poet
Gentleman poet

Viewed from the Keel of a Canoe is a very good book of poetry by a very interesting man. The man made the poetry, but the South, God, and his grandfathers made the man.

Matthew Boyleston is a rarity: a published poet with business savvy and a deeply conservative man.  His recent collection of poems should be required reading in the Carolinas and would be a good choice for a modern poetry class everyplace.

Here is a sample of a favorite:

In My Father’s House

In the beginning,

God created the world

to the Adagio of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A Major.

All opens before me-

an isosceles sky,

rent cotton,

the white steeple of a Baptist church:

this is the setting for all stories.

Boyleston20161209_213240427_iOS_opt writes poetry, not religious poetry, or Southern poetry, but as a Southern and Christian man his language and images reflect his mind. Some of us take our experiences and fit them into our vision of reality and they end up false when we recount them. They even sound false, yet Boyleston has allowed his home, his grandparents, his heritage to shape him and if he then contributes his share to the family memory, then that share is part of a greater whole.

This is a man careful with words. His poems are spare and that makes them easy to read, but they are full of ideas. Like the great teacher he is, Boyleston can make something very hard seem delightful and plain. Only later, when the beauty brings you back to Boyleston, do you see there was more to the line “Air is the dead smell of pigs.” There is farming, a bit of Homer, and three hundred years of Southern history.

Boyleston is almost old fashioned in following the ancient rules of poetry. If you think you must have heard all this before in other mannerly, Southern poets, you would be wrong. Boyleston has been shaped by his heritage, his education, his family and then plays by the rules to tell us what he has learned. His voice, the sum of all those parts, is fresh and so the poetry is fresh.

This makes me suspect the problem is never the rules, but the messenger: Boyleston has something to say, says it beautifully, and says it as his heritage has shaped him to speak. There is only one Matt Boyleston so there is no poetry quite like this.

A few books gravitate to my desk or by my office chair, Sculpting in Time, the Bible, and generally some Plato. All this school year, I have picked up Boyleston’s little book of poetry and found some wisdom and much more needed: mental peace that is quiet without being dull. I made sure we got a copy for everyone in The Saint Constantine School leadership.

If you can give the gift of wisdom wrapped in beauty, you should. Boyleston has given you the chance with Viewed from the Keel of a Canoe. Like many beautiful things, this book is hard to get so order while you can.


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