Daniel L Smith

Without Thought of Return / Coming Home Late Daniel L Smith

The poems in Without Thought of Return, Coming Home Late, Smith's sixth collection in recent years, are of the author's "private stock" if there can be such a thing. They were not to come to print. All poetry is intensely personal, and these, no different. But the poems found in these two short collections, find no pretense in the central figure, like chewing the late night grounds of a bitter sweet happy life. These are poems of love freely given "without thought of return." They somewhat unashamedly are found contra-dancing in the dark shadows with "coming home late" if even returning "home" at all. the second precept perhaps providing meaning for the first. But it is in finding the way that home may be found. "There is no way home; home is the way" says Thich Nhat Hanh.