"Poems, everybody, poems!" - Pink Floyd, The Wall
These are some of my poems. Everything here is Copyright © Tom Swiss. The Hounds Of Hell will forever be nipping at your heels if you try to represent any of it as your own, so there.
This is mostly old stuff. Since most venues won't publish previously published works, and they include web publishing in that restriction, new stuff will be added only once I've given up hope of publication (or less likely, managed to get it published somewhere...), so my favorite new stuff ain't here.
However, some writing exercises from Zelda's Inferno and works in progress can be found in my blog.
Some of these works cover controversial topics or contain strong language that may not be suitable for children - or for many adults, for that matter. The easily offended need proceed no further.
By the way, I am not this poet Thomas Swiss, nor any relation to him. He's probably a decent guy and all and I wouldn't want you to blame him. I'm the poet Tom Swiss from Baltimore. (Not the lawyer Tom Swiss from Baltimore either, though he is a cousin; I'm the hacker/poet/karate-ka/bodyworker/singer/songwriter one.)
To help keep us straight, to the left is a photo of me from a reading at the 2005 Sowebo festival. (Photo by Doreen Peri. I wish I looked that cool in real life.)
If you live in the Baltimore area and go to poetry events you may have seen me - I read out a bit (not as much as I used to since open mic poetry venues started charging a cover, that's just wrong), hosted an open mic at the original One World Cafe in Federal Hill for a few months some years back, and I currently co-ordinate the Zelda's Inferno poetry workshop.
Upcoming poetry and music performances can be found on my music page.
Recordings of ReadingsSometime they catch me in the act. Recordings made available for demonstration purposes only. Copyright © Tom Swiss. All rights reserved. Funks Democratic Coffee Spot, July 13, 2002 (Robin and Eric's farewell reading): | |
| intro to Creed | mp3 |
| Creed: A Personal Statement | mp3 |
| Red (Airstrike) | mp3 |
| I Feel The Muse Upon Me | mp3 |
| I Looked For God | mp3 |
| Sudden Collapse | mp3 |
| Sestina 1 | mp3 |
You might also be interested in my music.
- Note to my Chain Smoking Friends
- Published in the indie, March 2005:
- Bizarre Acts of Poetry, my
self-published 1997 chapbook, in HTML format. Includes:
- All Purpose Generic Blues
- `I wonder what birds think about aeroplanes?'
- Even the Moon is Blue
- `We invited Dionysus over for the party Friday night'
- `I burned all my pictures of you'
- A Bizarre Act of Kindness
- Poetic License
- `The man who owns nothing'
- Blood on Concrete
- `What do you do with mail for a
dead man?' - `I am a servant of Entropy'
- `I'm sitting in the rain waiting for you'
- `Would you trade your arms for wings?'
- `The phone awakened me at 4 a.m.'
- Proofs of Love
- Song for Night People
- Creed: A Personal Statement
- Election '94
- If Only
- Night Terror
- `Happy Earth Day!'
- `An angel's feet dont touch the ground''
- `Entropy always wins'
- The Second Coming:
Tuesday, August 22, 1995 - Chimpanzee Wannabe
- `Hey, Mister Coffin-maker'
- Eight-Ball With the Devil
- Thread
- Fossils
- Revelations on the Revolution
- The Fire Inside
- Assorted Haiku
- "Once, we were free..." - about the net and censorship. Written mostly so I could put on a blue ribbon, go to open readings, and have an excuse to talk about the CDA while on stage. 1996.