Stranger in Parodies

I’m Tom Schmidt, defying the convention of putting this page in the third person, because we all know I’m writing it. Here’s what might be interesting to know about me: after decades launching scholarly paper airplanes from ivory tower windows, I retired to a meadow with a mountain view in rural Vermont, where I have taken up a long-delayed ambition to write poems.

The upside of waiting so long is that experience makes for rich poetic compost. Most of my work is quite serious, but now and then my Muse is amusing—a word that appears to mean “without muse” but which in fact comes from an old French verb meaning “to cause to stare stupidly.” Now, there’s a noble purpose for poetry! But I digress.

Merry, my wife (see Section II, mostly about her) says I’m terrible at self-promotion, so I’ll end this by listing my other poetry books, which—fair warning—are entirely different in content: Enough to Drink or Drown (Kelsay Books, 2020), Like, A Metaphor (Encircle Publications, 2021), and Rowing with Either Oar (Solum Literary Press, 2024). Buy one! Buy all of them! Multiple copies!

How’d I do, Merry?

Paperback: 76 pages
Publisher: Kelsay Books (February 16, 2025)