THE FOOT OF THE RAINBOW by Thomas R. Smith

Now Available

ISBN 978-1-890193-21-8
100 pages
5 1/2" x 8 1/2"
Trade paper edition

In The Foot of the Rainbow, as its title suggests, Thomas R. Smith embraces
and elaborates the hope for a better future, against the backdrop of
turbulent times. His long-standing fascination with form leads to
surprising, fertile juxtapositions of blues, ghazals, and Nerudean
"elemental odes," reflecting not only the complexity of a multicultural
America but a reverence for literary and artistic forebears as various as
John Clare and Mississippi John Hurt.

Smith's rainbows are literal as well as symbolic. The Foot of the Rainbow
finds him writing at the height of his powers, bringing the world's
abundance within his poems' vibrant circumference:

At a crossroads I turned east: a rainbow
curved so high I had to hunch forward
over the wheel to glimpse its full arch
against the dark. Then out in a field I saw
its foot misting along a line of near trees

like a rainbow's ghost. It was that close,
moving with me, the arc I'd thought far as
mountains!
from "The Foot of the Rainbow"

"[Thomas R.] Smith writes in a simple, lucid style, with phrases that turn
your head with their plainspoken eloquence."
-Robert Milo Baldwin, The Bloomsbury Review

"Smith is a serious optimist, who ultimately recalls Julian of Norwich:
'and all manner of things shall be well.'"
-Ray Olson, Booklist

". . . his poems are informed with hope; not hope of rescue by forces
outside history, but hope for the continuing advance of human consciousness
within history. His poetry is like a seismograph tuned to measure shifts in
that consciousness."
-Joseph Hutchison, The Perpetual Bird blog