Tyler Stoddard Smith's Blog, page 2

Roman Ingenuity

The Tiber celebrates her birthday every moment by announcing the contents of her history. The sacerdotal hijinks of humanity are no match for this enduring river, witness to cornucopias of pain, of Punic wars and pre-pubic popes. The same Koreans who pushed me out of line at the Vatican are taking pictures of this urinary [...]

The Depths of Machu Picchu

An invisible estate, trod over by eternity now roars violent out of a bubbling core. I want to be madly in love but I am alone and frustrated and zero with the mind of God. Neruda wrote about this kind of shit much better than I, but I’ll bet he wasn’t trying to quit smoking.

Mount Fuji

          Mathematics are no           match for its perfect cone.           Snow marches off either           side with Japanese precision—its elevation           only two feet greater than           its prominence.           I receive an email from           a manager of an inn somewhere           [...]

Champs-Élysées

   Cooled by the conker trees,    it’s painful to consider    La plus belle avenue du monde    felled in the Paris heat    to goosestep clacks    and the clown Chancellor.    The ordure of war    is more repellent    than common street dung,    but that doesn’t take Fifi’s feces    [...]

Oaxaca Cobblestone

Every step is perfect—imperfect and different, like a snowflake or a cheeseburger. This Oaxacan street is quaint, and echoes with the struggle of Benito Juarez, its noble, battered son. I can’t tell now if I’ve had too much tequila because I’m lost or the other way around. It would also help if every other street [...]