Home – Page 47 – Nestucca Spit Press Meditations Blog

In perhaps the largest, most eclectic volume of previously unpublished poetry in the history of Pacific Northwest literature, Matt Love presents 148 poems written over a 30-year span.

As he writes in the introduction to A Substantial but Incomplete Autobiography in Poems, “I have organized this collection into six categories: Ocean, Love, My Life, Oregon Tavern Age, Homelessness, Probation. These poems serve as a substantial but incomplete autobiography.”

“Confessionals, odes, scatological doggerel, polemics, tankas, haiku, prose, psalms, requiems, observations, love letters, lamentations, lyrics, stream of consciousness, meditations, lists, riffs, a eulogy, a sermon, a commencement speech, found poetry, tributes, elegies. I threw it all into an ancient cement mixer and hand cranked that concrete beast while watching blue herons undulate overhead and drinking red wine as the husky snoozed in his dirt fort. The result: A Substantial but Incomplete Autobiography in Poems, something merging where Charles Bukowski, Richard Hugo, Mary Oliver and Liz Phair blend together.”

None of Love's poems were ever submitted to poetry journals, contests or magazines, making this collection a true renegade project of passion and readable to any denizen of a coastal dive bar.

Lost and Found 9 / Self Hospice Care

Lost and Found 8 / Jobs

The Alpine Tavern: One the Great Lost Oregon Books of All Time

Remembrances of Father Andy Duffner and a Certain Gravel Road

Whales and Bumblebees

Rain and Rain and Rain and a Favorite April Rain Story

Gold Beach Memoir Part 3

Gold Beach Memoir Part 2

Gold Beach Memoir Part 1

Steve Prefontaine on My Mind

Late April Dick Dale Riffage

Some Personal Reflections on “So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed”

A Stream of Thoughts on The Snow Leopard

NSP Correspondent / The Oregon Shot / Gerry Lewin

NSP Correspondent / Bill Hall / Oswald West and Tom McCall Meet in Heaven

NSP Correspondent / Earl Mohr / A Writer’s Womb

NSP Correspondent / Matthew Sproul / GAME TODAY, 4:00 p.m.

NSP Correspondent / Jane Endres / Nature Communicates

On Renee Zellweger Saving My Life

Brownsmead Dreaming

Lost and Found 7 / Losing Friends, Finding Friends

Ten Year Anniversary of Red Hot and Rollin’ and the Stoner Legend of Fast Break

Curators and Curating on the Beach

Lost and Found 6 / Back and Forth

The Secret Oregon Coast: Part 2…My Favorite 101 Secret Spots on the Oregon Coast

The Secret Oregon Coast Part 1

Dear Anonymous Letter Writer

On Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Lost and Found 5 / The Parable of the Lost Sheep

Dear Dogs of Oregon…Fight Self-service Gasoline and the Potential Loss of Treats!

Lost and Found 4 / Improvisation with Monk and Coffee

On the End of My Classroom Teaching Career

A Siddhartha Lesson for the Former Teacher

Give Me Beer or Wine or Whiskey on Oregon’s Ocean Beaches or Give Me Death!

Rain Meditations: New, Old, Refashioned, Repurposed

Hummingbird Healing

The New Oregon Coast Pot Trail

Henry Miller Writing Time

The Last DJs of Rock and Roll–Tune in on Oregon Coast Radio!

Lost and Found 3 / Drifting the Oregon Coast with Bob Dylan