Offical Website of

M.T. KELLY

Award-winning author, essayist, journalist and poet.




Welcome

A poem about how things have been recently:


DOWNRIVER

The man is turning, smiling

at you, going down river, from the bow

of a canoe. He is not smiling

as he has too often, too many times

in his life, telling too much: telling

everything. What you see is special,

because it's simply what a smile can be,

and special because this day, of such

beauty, is the end, forever lost to him:

the snow in spring, the feeling

of being out all day in such weather;

being alone on cross country skis,

and not being afraid: of the wet bark,

the wet everywhere, breath.


So he turns and looks back at you

and smiles, in a canoe, alone now,

but sharing all that was once out there

beyond the gunnels: the lovely silences,

the word Iroquois, his interest in

so much, what he loved, yes, loved.


The man who has become all fear is

smiling now, like never before, saying goodbye.

He is sailing into something like death,

O say it, downriver, never to see the wet spring

again, to be out, all day, in weather like this.


M.T. Kelly


Above: Niva, the star of the film Flame

RECENT & UPCOMING


Fall 2013

Upcoming Toronto screening this September of Downriver, a short film based on the book. A 35mm equivalent, Downriver is best suited for the big screen.


Fall 2012

New novel With His Father. "In the early morning on the lake sitting in the stern of the boat with his father rowing, he felt quite sure that he would never die."

New short story The Lesser Angels of our Nature. "He finally had what he wanted; there was no escape. Yet he felt anchored, like a mussel, its head glued to a rock flailing about for sustenance."


SPRING 2012

Completion of filming of Flame, film short without a fact in it, all poetry and music. A picture of the star is under the poem DOWNRIVER.


FALL 2010

M.T. Kelly invited to read from his poetry at festivals in Vancouver, Ottawa, and Toronto.


SUMMER 2010

Footage available of M.T. Kelly reading selections from DOWNRIVER. Click to watch video.


SPRING 2010

May 18: DOWNRIVER and A Dream Like Mine launched at the Dora Keogh Pub in Toronto.

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M.T. Kelly featured in Hooked On Canadian Books: The best Canadian Novels, by T.F. Rigelhof


2009 brought DOWNRIVER