My new poetry book, River of Light, begins in the gathering headwaters of grief and blessing, then floats through the confluence and flow of Eastern spiritual practices. At its delta, it enters the sea with poems about light and death and speculation on the afterlife. The poem from which the book takes its title draws inspiration from Canto 30 of Dante’s Paradiso and Monet’s dictum that “the real subject of every painting is light.” … River of Light
SNOW is a video tone poem from my third poetry book, River of Light. River of Light is available from Shanti Arts Publishing or Amazon.
Available on Amazon
Drawing from Eastern and Western spiritual traditions, Leaving the Base Camp at Dawn explores how a long relationship of love is like a spiritual practice, … Leaving the Base Camp at Dawn
Fur and Feathers is an album of instrumental music available to stream on Spotify, Apple Music and other services. For more info click through. … Fur and Feathers-Instrumental Album
Many Years I’ve Climbed is a video tone poem. Tone Poems are poetry/music pieces where words and original music work together as equals. They combine the reading of one of my poems with original music. Here I added visuals as well. I hope you enjoy it!
SHADOWLANDS is a set of photo images. … SHADOWLANDS: Photography
Available on Amazon
Traversing the distance between snowy Minnesota and lush Southern California, “Deep Pockets” is a collection of lyric and narrative poems that evoke the passing years and “the soul’s mystery in the material world.” … Deep Pockets – Winner of 2018 Catholic Press Award
Tone Poems are poetry/music pieces where words and original music work together as equals. Here are a two samples that set poems from my new book, Leaving the Base Camp at Dawn:
… Tone Poems: poems with original musicTwo ragged lines, weary
flesh, inch
toward the altar, hands folded
in unaccustomed quiet.
With each step, we
chant, remembering
we are tree limbs swept
along the river’s sheen,
dust layers lying on
the closed window’s sill.
Tears well
from my wrinkled eyes.
I weep
for the grief concealed
in each person around me,
but also for you
and me, how we lose each other
in self-made misery,
unnecessary
as these dark ashes smeared
across our foreheads, there
for others to see, as if
they didn’t already know us
to be transient, broken, human.
“Ash Wednesday” is from the book Leaving the Base Camp at Dawn by Daniel Thomas.
To purchase or just learn more about the book, follow this link: Leaving the Base Camp at Dawn.
A reading of my poem “Happiness” at the publication celebration of Miramar 8.
Thanks to Chris Buckley and Phil Taggart.
On May 19, I performed eight of my tone poems at a Blue Whale poetry reading. Here’s a video of one of them. I Whispered is about my father’s death. (Tone Poems are poems with original music).
Daniel Thomas 