floodedpark

July 13, 2018

Checking Out

I sit on a picnic table near a river. I am surrounded by geese and bumblebees feeding in a field of clover.

Twenty yards away, a homeless man sleeps on a table. Another 20 yards away, a homeless woman sleeps on a bench. In the parking lot, an 80s minivan covered almost entirely in duct tape captures my attention. The vehicle is covered with Christian slogans. I see an elderly couple inside with a Chihuahua. The man emerges with a guitar slung over his shoulder. He’s shouting at the woman.

It is early morning and the residents of the RV park are starting to stir, get about, tidy up. I hear conversations.

I think about this RV park and other RV parks and the interesting stories of dissipation and diaspora they contain. These stories intrigue me as a writer. I’m fascinated by their various “checking out” qualities and scenarios.

What makes an increasing number of Americans “check out” from society, on foot or in vehicles, and take to the roads, rivers, woods, willows, streets and beaches? Stateless, quiet, removed, marooned, some obviously ill, some obviously addled, mapless, meandering, with dogs and cats. Some have gone off the grid, but the vast majority remain firmly linked to the hive for banking, entertainment and communication. It’s still somewhat bracing to see a solar panel on a tent under a bridge or homeless woman with a smartphone streaming a show.

The next phase of my life will involve some “checking out,” for a spell, to assess and navigate my massive marginalization, but I plan to remain engaged with teaching workshops, writing, and going even deeper into my creative mind. I also want to continue helping others in subtle, decent ways without fanfare, recognition or recompense.

This is what I am thinking this morning on the river. The geese have stopped feeding and now are waddling straight for me.

(If you found this post enjoyable, thought provoking or enlightening, please consider supporting a writer at work by making a financial contribution to this blog or by purchasing an NSP book.)

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The Old Crow

Book Club

$11.99 + $3 Shipping

In December of 2020, author Matt Love moved to Portland to care for his elderly father.

Returning to the Rose City jolted Love after 23 years residing on the Oregon Coast. In the Sellwood neighborhood where he lived, Love met a homeless man named Mark. They formed a friendship over literature and the unforeseen magical discoveries in street libraries. They created The Old Crow Book Club, and yes, sometimes that involved drinking Old Crow on a sidewalk.

The club also included several other Sellwood homeless men and women cut from John Steinbeck's Cannery Row cloth.

In due course, Love learned the members' stories of homelessness and how they survived. He wondered what happened to his beloved state of Oregon and attempted to help Mark get off the streets only to run up against the seemingly futile policies to address the crisis.

Along the way, he had the best conversations about books in his life and wrote The Old Crow Book Club, where he recounts his interactions with the homeless people in his neighborhood and offers some suggestions how to alleviate what he considers the greatest man-made American humanitarian disaster of his adult life.

The Old Crow Book Club is available for purchase here and select independent bookstores in Oregon.

Choice Cuts

of Oregon Fiction

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Choice Cuts of Oregon Fiction by Matt Love contains 20 stories, all set in Oregon. The cast of characters includes a depressed Santa Claus, Steve Prefontaine, Jack Ramsay's fast break offense, socialist squirrels, a clearcut, a dead deer, a junior high football team, a high school tennis player, a dissipated teacher, a man who evolves into a beaver, a homeless vet, a jilted preacher, a double date to a prom, rural degenerates, a wily caterer, and much more.

The publication of the collection culminates a quarter century of the author's writing about Oregon and rambling around the state.

Choice Cuts is available for purchase here, through Amazon, or select independent bookstores in Oregon.

The Savage

of State Street

Nestucca Spit Press is proud to present The Savage of State Street: The Thieving and Literary Lives of Smoky Epley. He is the greatest unheralded writer in Oregon history and also one of its more mediocre, colorful and persistent thieves.

$19.99 + $3 Shipping

In 1973, Oregon State University Press published Men in Exile: An Anthology of Creative Writing by Inmates of the Oregon State Penitentiary. Twenty-two of Smoky Epley's pieces appeared in the book.

Smoky spent most of his adult life in state and federal prisons for robbery. In 2008, during one of his brief stints of freedom, Smoky became friends with Matt Love, an Oregon author and publisher. They met after Love discovered Men in Exile and wrote a newspaper column about the landmark book. Smoky read the column and reached out.

He returned to prison in 2009 after forging a check. Upon his release in 2011, Love encouraged Smoky to write a memoir. He completed half of Auto before dying in February of 2013.