Thomas R. Smith has been a poetry friend of mine since 1981. We've been reading together ever since. He joined Jesse Dermody, Scott Vetsch, and me for a Como Cottage Salon Poetry Scrum on November 9, 2025.

On November 9, 2025 The Como Cottage Salon Series hosted a poetry scrum with Jesse Dermody, Scott Vetsch, Thomas R. Smith and Timothy Young. Before the scrum, each read the poems of their choice for about 10 minutes. Here is Jesse's contribution.

The Como Cottage Salon on November 9, 2025 featured a poetry scrum, hosted by Timothy Young. Featured readers were Scott Vetsch, Jesse Dermody, Thomas R. Smith and Timothy Young.

Rappers are not the only freestyling poets. Here is an example of one poem I freestyled in December 2017 while the SpiritHouse Quartet played at a Como Cottage Salon. Later with slight editing, I prepared the poem for publication.

This episode is my telling of a Metis tale, Little Man with Hair All Over. I used to tell a version of this tale to my son when he was a boy. This version is a recording from my telling to The Fifth Direction Men's Elder Circle.

In 2019 Dalyce and I produced an after-dinner program for her sister and friends at the Crave restaurant. We put together a program of poetry, music, and storytelling for their enjoyment and relaxation.

Here are six poems prompted by pictures of horses painted in the Caves of Lascaux. The first three I read for the Elder Circle of the mythopoetic group, The Fifth Direction, on October 2, 2025. The final three are read from the book.

This episode is a recording of a poetry reading at the 1988 Minnesota Men's Conference at Camp Lake Hubert in Nisswa, MN. John Lang and I were introduced by Todd Davis. Roy McBride and Thomas R. Smith also read that evening and were featured in an earlier podcast, number 28.