BIO: Awarded a 2007 Fellowship in Poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts, J.D. Smith has published two collections of poetry, edited one anthology, and published one children's book. His work in both free and formal verse has appeared in publications including Alimentum, Cadenza (United Kingdom), The Formalist, Light Quarterly, Measure, Nimrod and Tar River Poetry. His work ranges in tone from playful and humorous to meditative and solemn, and his subjects extend from personal experience to larger concerns of history and the human relationship with the natural world. J.D. Smith has read at venues including the District of Columbia Arts Center, the Housing Works Bookstore Café in New York, the Midwest Literary Festival, and the Library of Congress. Based in Washington, DC, he is available for readings, lectures and signings.

PUBLICATIONS:
Settling for Beauty, Cherry Grove Collections, 2005 - $17.00
Available from Cherry Grove Collections: cherry-grove.com/smith.html
Northern Music: Poems about and Inspired by Glenn Gould, John Gordon Burke, Publisher, 2001 - $15.00 paper or $24.00 cloth. Available from John Gordon Burke, Publisher: jgburkepub.com/toOrder.cfm
The Hypothetical Landscape,Quarterly Review of Literature Poetry Series, 1999 - out of print

OTHER POEMS
versedaily.org/2005/thedrownedfish.shtml
POEMS
AGENDA

To renovate the Parthenon,
To know beginnings without end,
To live by bread and bread alone.
To be a string played by the wind.
To raise a pearl outside the shell,
To grow a lemon with no rind,
To learn a useful trade by mail,
To be a string played by the wind.
To write a book-length palindrome,
To walk above the binding ground,
To be, not needing to become.
To be a string played by the wind.
To make my name and make it last,
To be redeemed, not having sinned,
To mold, as clay, bronze long since cast.
To be a string played by the wind.

—J.D. Smith

previously published in Texas Review