Native of the South Carolina Midlands, resident of Portland, Oregon. Books, film, running, and the intellectual adventure sustain me as I try to keep faith with that dream of being a poet I had when I was nineteen. 

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Poems, reviews, and essays have appeared in Adelaide Literary Magazine, The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Quill and Parchment,  the anthologies Blown Out: Portland's Indie Poets, Ghost Town Poetry Volume 2: 2004 – 2014, and Raising Our Voices: an anthology of Oregon poets against the War, and elsewhere. Two small volumes of poems are self-published in the tradition of Blake and Whitman: Notes to One Who Is Far from Here (2003) and A Portable Bohemia (2008).

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Matthews heaves his heart against the bulwarks, sets his siege engines of verse a-going into the fathomless ludicrous nonsensical void. ―Wade Dinius

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The thing I remember about first reading one of Dave’s poems was my initial reaction and comment, “He has poetry in his soul.” That is how I measure a poet. Is he merely a clever wordsmith or truly and deeply a poet? Dave Matthews is both. That is why I tracked him down and asked for permission to publish “Home” at Quill and Parchment.

​― Sharmagne Leland-St.John
Editor-in-Chief, Quill and Parchment

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The poetry of David Matthews is haunting and calming, surreal and direct, like being hit by a freight train covered in pillows. You feel as if you stepped onto a new planet, a planet that holds the true promise and understanding of poetry. To read his poems is to see his very soul while simultaneously gaining insight into your own.

​― Sophia Helstrom-White

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