Sam Schmidt
Poet, Writer, Editor, Photographer
Now available
Dark Bird
(2024)
In his new collection, Schmidt offers poems that begin and end with an ordinary tree. From that minimalist center, the book travels in a widening trance to explore love, family, politics, philosophy, and old wounds. Acutely observant, ruefully funny, and consistently daring, Schmidt speaks with a voice that feels both contemporary and evergreen.
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A man is looking inward at himself,
seeing the forest of the inarticulate.
Those tall pines.
His childhood was unremarkable. Why
does it tower that way above him?
Why, like it might explode?
Why desire, catching in his throat?
The bite of persimmon he can’t cough up.
The old language of love. An underground
river beyond the roots of his tongue.
Why does anger say nothing?
He dreams of children, running
through the forest with sticks, who strike
the trees shouting, Wake up, wake up.
Throughout this unusual book, Schmidt's skill steadies the reader while poetic shapeshifting makes turning the pages a complete pleasure.
Natash Sajé
Praise & Reviews
Dark Bird grows quietly toward something true. Its vulnerability roots deeply through an impersonal spiritual journey. These poems slowly expand and blossom leaving you with hope, or something stronger.
Edgar Silex
A tree is a tree is a tree. Also, if you are Schmidt’s new book, Dark Bird, a tree is a measure, a refuge, a dog stop, a memory, a… tree. The book is elegant and strong and tender.
Clarinda Harriss
Schmidt hinges from realism to symbolist insight with convincing fluency. Dark Bird is more experience than description. Its plainspoken diction is married to uncanny symbolism blooming out of the familiar.
G. H. Mosson
The Loch Raven Review
Upcoming Appearances
Reading with Elizabeth Brunazzi and Denize Lautoure at the MLK Library, Washington DC
Thursday April 25, 6:30 pm
