Matt Beard

Matt Beard is an artist most known for his paintings that portray hundreds of locations across the length of the entire California coastline. He spends weeks at a time alone in his van traveling the state and looking for new vistas upon which to plant his easel. All that time on the road has really messed with his head, and so he’s taken to writing poetry as a way to cope with his increasing anxiety about parking tickets or overnight camping violations.

About The Author

Matt Beard

Matt Beard is an artist most known for his paintings that portray hundreds of locations across the length of the entire California coastline. He spends weeks at a time alone in his van traveling the state and looking for new vistas upon which to plant his easel. All that time on the road has really messed with his head, and so he’s taken to writing poetry as a way to cope with his increasing anxiety about parking tickets or overnight camping violations.

See author's posts

    • Matt Beard's Poetry Archive

     

    Love Remains

    Love Remains I’ve heard it said… That even if a man came back from the dead We still wouldn’t listen to a word that he spoke We’d tell stories about him around fire and smoke We’d call him a ghost So we’d haunt ourselves with old memories instead And leave his ghost to grow lonely inside his own head   I once knew a man They cut off his hand Buried it in the African...
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    Open Road

    There should be a word For the open road   You’ve been tailgating others around This town where you were born An impatient game of pac-man Where you are the hungry ghost   And everything you know of others You learned from their bumper stickers While wondering how the activists And theologians Would ever even see you behind them Through the decades of peeling vinyl Sometimes catchy Sometimes funny Sometimes true But who are they?...
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    All of This is For You

    All of this is for you   Every star in the sky That you followed out of your own personal Egypt All of this is for you   Every stone you laid your head upon To watch the angels ascend and descend All of this is for you   This stable outside of Jerusalem This feeding trough This bed of hay The smell of the blemished beasts That sustain the lives of your people The...
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    Thanksgiving Ritual

    Breath that sounds like God’s name in my lungs The joy of connection Every rebellious moment of solidarity In a world determined to isolate Fellowship with those who think they follow Christ Fellowship with those who think they don’t Fellowship with every living thing Existence I like it here And I’m glad I was invited To this awkward party 50 years ago Many have left and gone home But other guests just keep arriving And...
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    Monetary Policy

    It’s always there It’s the air that we breathe in It’s the water that we swim in It’s the current that takes us Down to the altar and makes us Drown   This water, it used to be wine Until we tried to trade our shame For thirty silver coins salvaged from a shipwreck that We bought off the docks with a hand written check that… Bounced   And now Shame is the currency we...
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    Swan Song

    You sleep like a feather Slipping silently  From the nest of a dove Over a river at night Just one note from a  Muffled song Even just a slight breath of air And there you are Drifting down To the icy water Wide awake   Me? I sleep like a brick Like shoes made of concrete Encased in the mud Beneath the bridge Beneath the fishes A mouth full of gravity I sleep on borrowed...
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    Worlds Away

    Who doesn’t want to go To another world A world, worlds and half a world Worlds away from this one?   I was ten years old When the whole world sang to me “We are the world” I thought it was a stupid song Because all I wanted from this world Was a spaceship That would take me to another world Just one badass spaceship Was that too much to ask? But still, A part...
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    Sink or Swim

    Minding I was just minding my own business Just standing out there on the docks Lost in a long list of long lost thoughts Thinking of various clocks Counting the sums And cursing some And wondering when my ship would come… in Was it a crime to just stand there Was it some kind of a… sin? Staring into that particular darkness Of calm waters at dusk When something flashed Out from a splash in...
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    The Mother of the World

    An entire world lost its mother today An entire world got the news Somewhere on a California highway An entire world full of children Women and men Going north, south, east and west Each one with a mother inside each of them Even if their mother is just an empty space Left behind by her absence And yes, there is even a mother in that man Who only speaks of knives and steak Make no...
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    Torn Paper Sack

    What is this holy temple?   A place where we learn to feel better About feeling bad about ourselves Because the music is loud enough To drown out the cries of the wounded Who live in our chests And the sermon delivered With shouts and tears And sometimes dripping with sweat Also hints that we are not alone And we are all bleeding out Into the offering basket together   What is this holy temple?...
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