by Kile Smith | Dec 10, 2025 | Broad Street Review
The Christmas spirit doesn’t really begin to have its way with me until the tree is in the house. Yesterday, we got the tree. I should say, I sat in the car in the parking lot of our local produce store while the blessed Mrs. Smith returned with a...
by Kile Smith | Feb 1, 2024 | Broad Street Review, Photography
First published in the Broad Street Review 27 Nov 2023, and reprinted here by permission. It’s been a good year for bedstraw. Its narrow leaves radiate out in evenly spaced fans along its vine; delicate white flowers pop out at the end: it’s a sparkler of a weed. It...
by Kile Smith | Nov 1, 2022 | Broad Street Review
[First published in the Broad Street Review 1 Nov 2022 as “One man, his van, and 18 hours: Journey to an orphanage in Kyiv” and reprinted here by permission.] The Russians, invading Ukraine at the end of February, pounced on the capital city of Kyiv. By...
by Kile Smith | Jul 19, 2022 | Broad Street Review, Photography
A photo of a common bird gives flight to thoughts on technology and gratitude. [First published in the Broad Street Review 19 Jul 2022 as “A walk in the woods, with the wrens, makes me wonder: if things were simpler, when?” and reprinted here by...
by Kile Smith | Dec 23, 2020 | Broad Street Review, Classical music, Vocal music
[First published in Broad Street Review 21 Dec 2020 and reprinted here by permission.] About the best advice for composers I’ve heard comes from Mac Sledge, Robert Duvall’s washed-up country singer who finds redemption in 1983’s Tender Mercies. When word gets out that...
by Kile Smith | Oct 20, 2020 | Broad Street Review, Pop Music
[First published in the Broad Street Review 19 Oct 2020 and reprinted here by permission.] Since I set a lot of words to a lot of music, I’m interested in how others do it, others including composers of the past, of the present—and pop songwriters. The music of my...
