John Smith
Biography
John Smith was born in Toronto in 1927 to parents who immigrated from Northern England. By 1949, he had earned an undergraduate degree in physics and mathematics from the University of Toronto, and later studied philosophy in London, England before returning to the University of Toronto to earn his Master’s in English Literature.
Smith taught English in central Canada before settling in Prince Edward Island in 1967, where he initially taught at Scarborough College and Prince of Wales College. Following this venture, Smith took up a position at the University of Prince Edward Island, where he taught for the next 25 years. Smith served a term as the Dean of Arts, and is Professor Emeritus at UPEI. Notably, he was named Prince Edward Island’s first Poet Laureate, a position he held from 2002 to 2004.
Various single poems have been featured in anthologies such as Coastlines: the Poetry of Atlantic Canada (Gooselane Editions, 2002) and The Poets of Prince Edward Island (Ragweed Press, 1980). Smith’s fully authored collections include Fireflies in the Magnolia Grove (Acorn Press, 2004), Maps of Invariance (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Ltd., 2005), Midnight Found You Dancing (Ragweed Press, 1869), Of the Summer Among the Coral and of the Monk in the Mountains (Square Deal Publications, 1979), Strands the length of the Wind (Ragweed Press, 1993), Sucking-stones (Quadrant Editions, 1982), and Winter in Paradise (Square Deal Publications, 1972).
Smith passed away in March 2018.
Smith taught English in central Canada before settling in Prince Edward Island in 1967, where he initially taught at Scarborough College and Prince of Wales College. Following this venture, Smith took up a position at the University of Prince Edward Island, where he taught for the next 25 years. Smith served a term as the Dean of Arts, and is Professor Emeritus at UPEI. Notably, he was named Prince Edward Island’s first Poet Laureate, a position he held from 2002 to 2004.
Various single poems have been featured in anthologies such as Coastlines: the Poetry of Atlantic Canada (Gooselane Editions, 2002) and The Poets of Prince Edward Island (Ragweed Press, 1980). Smith’s fully authored collections include Fireflies in the Magnolia Grove (Acorn Press, 2004), Maps of Invariance (Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Ltd., 2005), Midnight Found You Dancing (Ragweed Press, 1869), Of the Summer Among the Coral and of the Monk in the Mountains (Square Deal Publications, 1979), Strands the length of the Wind (Ragweed Press, 1993), Sucking-stones (Quadrant Editions, 1982), and Winter in Paradise (Square Deal Publications, 1972).
Smith passed away in March 2018.
Near the end only do the premises come out of hiding.
Among the last discoveries are the grounds from which
we started without knowing whence. The grounds –
and with them, their alien economies and self-communings,
the chemistry of the geology that understructs the landscape,
the anaerobic life of earth millennia beneath our feet,
what passed between us unresolved when first we met, the mute
first chord from which choirs and cathedrals and angels came.
A moment of zero acceleration in the breathlessness of space
at the peak of the ballistic arch creates eternity.
That pinprick in consciousness lets in the full flood
of the absolute, which, given leave, will wash everything less
away. Two alone refuse, too deeply enthralled each by the other's
accidence to be withered by the wild photonic wind.
If only I can reach, thinks one, and with my hands
touch her to decision through the stream of her hair,
then something – how should I know what? but something
in which it will be possible with passion to believe – will begin again.
Published in Fireflies in the Magnolia Grove. (Acorn Press, 2004).
Used with permission of the author.
Among the last discoveries are the grounds from which
we started without knowing whence. The grounds –
and with them, their alien economies and self-communings,
the chemistry of the geology that understructs the landscape,
the anaerobic life of earth millennia beneath our feet,
what passed between us unresolved when first we met, the mute
first chord from which choirs and cathedrals and angels came.
A moment of zero acceleration in the breathlessness of space
at the peak of the ballistic arch creates eternity.
That pinprick in consciousness lets in the full flood
of the absolute, which, given leave, will wash everything less
away. Two alone refuse, too deeply enthralled each by the other's
accidence to be withered by the wild photonic wind.
If only I can reach, thinks one, and with my hands
touch her to decision through the stream of her hair,
then something – how should I know what? but something
in which it will be possible with passion to believe – will begin again.
Published in Fireflies in the Magnolia Grove. (Acorn Press, 2004).
Used with permission of the author.
Critical Analysis
Aaron Daigle (University of New Brunswick, Saint John)
John Smith’s “Near the End” explores how the individual relates to the other, a theme which recurs throughout the section “Of Sexual Dimorphism” in his 2004 collection Fireflies in the Magnolia Grove. By moving through a pattern of hypothesis and an abstract statement in the first quatrain, experiment or application of idea to the external world in the body of the poem, and then the contrast of an individual in the conclusion, Smith subverts the rationalist Renaissance sonnet. Each of the above divisions of the poem can be paired as a query, an investigation, and a conclusion, paradigms of question and answer which Smith writes but yields no answers to. Yet, the poem does retain a sonnet’s typical shift from general to specific, or from internal to external, which almost serve to answer the poet’s questions. By dispending “with metre and rhyme on the premise that those ancient accomplices tend to bring with them conventions of sensibility, expression, and metaphysics” Smith eschews the strict formalism which characterizes the traditional sonnet and leaves his poem wholly an open-ended question for each reader’s interpretation (“Beyond the Ridge” 15).
This rejection of the sonnet's formalism is typified by Smith's long lines and irregular metre; he instead finds “the music of the sentence” in his poetry (“Magic Prose” 367). Citing the elements of “discovery [and] uncertainty” which draw him to the long sentence, Smith's work serves to subvert one's expectation of sentence structure (367). The rigid formalism of science is conveyed by a simplistic, sterile subject-verb-object sentence structure and the presence of easily digestible thoughts. Smith defamiliarizes expectation and employs a tripping cadence that stumbles into the next idea, one after another, with little room for rest.
Overall, the deceptively conversational tone of the speaker within the poem is laden with such challenges to rest, and further demands acuity in science: familiarity with "the chemistry of the geology that understructs our feet," early "anaerobic life," and a "ballistic arch" all typify the speaker, while potentially alienating the reader (5, 6, 10). The personal and artistic are mingled with the scientific, as "what passed between us unresolved when first we met” and “the mute/first chord from which choirs and cathedrals and angels came" levels discourse to convey the scientific as the everyday, thus avoiding alienation if properly understood by readers (7-8). Smith's simple diction and lack of obscure symbolism conveys an earnestness to communicate, to educate, and a faith in language to express beyond the self.
With his jargon exemplified to readers, Smith begins his hypothesis of the poem: "near the end only do the premises come out of hiding" (1). This implies the cyclical nature of endings and beginnings, alongside the nature of knowledge. The "grounds from which/we started without knowing whence" (2-3) determine present identity: humanity is foreshadowed by "alien economies and self-communings," placing humans as literally standing above our ancestors in the "anaerobic life of earth" whilst dogged by uncertainty, though still recalling the "first chord [in] choirs and cathedrals and angels" (4, 6, 8). The full circle of life is explored by these few lines, which serve to perpetuate his experiment.
In writing that “a moment of zero acceleration in the breathlessness of space/at the peak of the ballistic arch creates eternity,” Smith evokes an end before decline (9-10). This of course, is typically improbable, therefore serving as an experiment where the “premises” of life are immediately, and not gradually, seen. By using the aforementioned scientific acuity however, Smith's speaker reveals how a "pinprick in consciousness lets in the full flood//of the absolute" (11-12). By envisioning a projectile leaving Earth's orbit, Smith brings the poem through all of history to the premises of space that grounded it. The realization of the history of space as the pinprick, and because the premises are only in "hiding" and are co-inhabiting with the present, this imaginatively and experimentally renews the Big Bang, while Smith’s speaker serves as witness.
While the absolute "will wash everything less/away," it needs to be "given leave" (12-13): the individual's consent is the crucial element required for the subsumation of the subjective self, as Smith assumes “a seamless continuity between the real and the imagined” (“Beyond the Ridge” 15). Rather than turn to origins and premises that facilitated the current universe, the archetypal couple turns to each other in order to generate new, unknown premises to construct their own reality. The universe is a "wild photonic wind" set against the two lovers who are "enthralled each by the other's/accidence" (13-14). This is not transcendent love, but the possibility that two people being alive is reason enough to continue living. This conclusion helps serve as a contrast of individuals who, both together and apart, will reach different premises of life. Though these two figures parallel Adam and Eve as a pair who "will begin again," the poem remains in the realm of potentiality (18). "If only I can reach, thinks one" employs unvoiced language—the individual “thinks,” rather than speaks—to indicate restriction. This pattern of perpetually being on the cusp of attainment is constant in Smith's work, whose speaker elsewhere "spends his life/evoking the indefinable [...] Possession would be anticlimax" ("It Starts" 5-6, 8).
The duo of “Near the End” are always on the verge of "decision" and hold out hope for a future that is necessarily unknown (16): "something – how should I know what? but something/in which it will be possible with passion to believe" (17-18). Exploring this obsession with uncertainty and attaining possible conclusion is illustrated by the poem’s altered sonnet form. The unexpected form of the sonnet works to uphold the unexpected message of the poem, presented by an inconclusive experiment. Rather than turning to origin, Smith's conclusion repudiates the past in favour of a future that defies all expectation and definition, thus leaving each reader with their own interpretation of the poem.
Works Cited (for analysis):
Smith, John. "Near the End." Fireflies in the Magnolia Grove. Charlottetown: Acorn Press, 2004. 54.
---. "It Starts." Fireflies in the Magnolia Grove. Charlottetown: Acorn Press, 2004. 14.
---. "Beyond the Ridge of Everything: Selected Sonnets of John Smith." Canadian Notes and Queries 78 (2010): 14-18.
---. "Magic Prose." Meetings with Maritime Poets. Ed. Anne Compton. Markham: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 2006. 365-97.
John Smith’s “Near the End” explores how the individual relates to the other, a theme which recurs throughout the section “Of Sexual Dimorphism” in his 2004 collection Fireflies in the Magnolia Grove. By moving through a pattern of hypothesis and an abstract statement in the first quatrain, experiment or application of idea to the external world in the body of the poem, and then the contrast of an individual in the conclusion, Smith subverts the rationalist Renaissance sonnet. Each of the above divisions of the poem can be paired as a query, an investigation, and a conclusion, paradigms of question and answer which Smith writes but yields no answers to. Yet, the poem does retain a sonnet’s typical shift from general to specific, or from internal to external, which almost serve to answer the poet’s questions. By dispending “with metre and rhyme on the premise that those ancient accomplices tend to bring with them conventions of sensibility, expression, and metaphysics” Smith eschews the strict formalism which characterizes the traditional sonnet and leaves his poem wholly an open-ended question for each reader’s interpretation (“Beyond the Ridge” 15).
This rejection of the sonnet's formalism is typified by Smith's long lines and irregular metre; he instead finds “the music of the sentence” in his poetry (“Magic Prose” 367). Citing the elements of “discovery [and] uncertainty” which draw him to the long sentence, Smith's work serves to subvert one's expectation of sentence structure (367). The rigid formalism of science is conveyed by a simplistic, sterile subject-verb-object sentence structure and the presence of easily digestible thoughts. Smith defamiliarizes expectation and employs a tripping cadence that stumbles into the next idea, one after another, with little room for rest.
Overall, the deceptively conversational tone of the speaker within the poem is laden with such challenges to rest, and further demands acuity in science: familiarity with "the chemistry of the geology that understructs our feet," early "anaerobic life," and a "ballistic arch" all typify the speaker, while potentially alienating the reader (5, 6, 10). The personal and artistic are mingled with the scientific, as "what passed between us unresolved when first we met” and “the mute/first chord from which choirs and cathedrals and angels came" levels discourse to convey the scientific as the everyday, thus avoiding alienation if properly understood by readers (7-8). Smith's simple diction and lack of obscure symbolism conveys an earnestness to communicate, to educate, and a faith in language to express beyond the self.
With his jargon exemplified to readers, Smith begins his hypothesis of the poem: "near the end only do the premises come out of hiding" (1). This implies the cyclical nature of endings and beginnings, alongside the nature of knowledge. The "grounds from which/we started without knowing whence" (2-3) determine present identity: humanity is foreshadowed by "alien economies and self-communings," placing humans as literally standing above our ancestors in the "anaerobic life of earth" whilst dogged by uncertainty, though still recalling the "first chord [in] choirs and cathedrals and angels" (4, 6, 8). The full circle of life is explored by these few lines, which serve to perpetuate his experiment.
In writing that “a moment of zero acceleration in the breathlessness of space/at the peak of the ballistic arch creates eternity,” Smith evokes an end before decline (9-10). This of course, is typically improbable, therefore serving as an experiment where the “premises” of life are immediately, and not gradually, seen. By using the aforementioned scientific acuity however, Smith's speaker reveals how a "pinprick in consciousness lets in the full flood//of the absolute" (11-12). By envisioning a projectile leaving Earth's orbit, Smith brings the poem through all of history to the premises of space that grounded it. The realization of the history of space as the pinprick, and because the premises are only in "hiding" and are co-inhabiting with the present, this imaginatively and experimentally renews the Big Bang, while Smith’s speaker serves as witness.
While the absolute "will wash everything less/away," it needs to be "given leave" (12-13): the individual's consent is the crucial element required for the subsumation of the subjective self, as Smith assumes “a seamless continuity between the real and the imagined” (“Beyond the Ridge” 15). Rather than turn to origins and premises that facilitated the current universe, the archetypal couple turns to each other in order to generate new, unknown premises to construct their own reality. The universe is a "wild photonic wind" set against the two lovers who are "enthralled each by the other's/accidence" (13-14). This is not transcendent love, but the possibility that two people being alive is reason enough to continue living. This conclusion helps serve as a contrast of individuals who, both together and apart, will reach different premises of life. Though these two figures parallel Adam and Eve as a pair who "will begin again," the poem remains in the realm of potentiality (18). "If only I can reach, thinks one" employs unvoiced language—the individual “thinks,” rather than speaks—to indicate restriction. This pattern of perpetually being on the cusp of attainment is constant in Smith's work, whose speaker elsewhere "spends his life/evoking the indefinable [...] Possession would be anticlimax" ("It Starts" 5-6, 8).
The duo of “Near the End” are always on the verge of "decision" and hold out hope for a future that is necessarily unknown (16): "something – how should I know what? but something/in which it will be possible with passion to believe" (17-18). Exploring this obsession with uncertainty and attaining possible conclusion is illustrated by the poem’s altered sonnet form. The unexpected form of the sonnet works to uphold the unexpected message of the poem, presented by an inconclusive experiment. Rather than turning to origin, Smith's conclusion repudiates the past in favour of a future that defies all expectation and definition, thus leaving each reader with their own interpretation of the poem.
Works Cited (for analysis):
Smith, John. "Near the End." Fireflies in the Magnolia Grove. Charlottetown: Acorn Press, 2004. 54.
---. "It Starts." Fireflies in the Magnolia Grove. Charlottetown: Acorn Press, 2004. 14.
---. "Beyond the Ridge of Everything: Selected Sonnets of John Smith." Canadian Notes and Queries 78 (2010): 14-18.
---. "Magic Prose." Meetings with Maritime Poets. Ed. Anne Compton. Markham: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 2006. 365-97.
Bibliography
Primary Sources:
Smith, John. “All Light.” Coastlines: the Poetry of Atlantic Canada. Eds. Compton et al. Fredericton: Gooselane Editions, 2002. 225.
---. “Another Bamboo Poem.” The Poets of Prince Edward Island. Ed. Wayne Wright. Charlottetown: Ragweed Press, 1980. n.p.
---. “At North Cape.” Landmarks: An Anthology of New Atlantic Canadian Poetry of the Land. Eds. Hugh MacDonald and Brent MacLaine. Charlottetown: Acorn Press, 2001. 133.
---. “Beyond the Ridge of Everything: Selected Sonnets of John Smith.” Canadian Notes and Queries 78 (2010): 14-18.
---. “Early Morning Was.” Coastlines: the Poetry of Atlantic Canada. Eds. Compton et al. Fredericton: Gooselane Editions, 2002. 224.
---. Fireflies in the Magnolia Grove. Charlottetown: Acorn Press, 2004.
---. “The Fourth Wall.” The New Poets of Prince Edward Island. Ed. Catherine Matthews. Charlottetown: Ragweed Press, 1991. 162.
---. “From the Top of a Donkey.” The Poets of Prince Edward Island. Ed. Wayne Wright. Charlottetown: Ragweed Press, 1980. n.p.
---. “Gates.” Island Voices: John Smith. Charlottetown: University of Prince Edward Island, 2006.
---. “Granite Outcrops.” The New Poets of Prince Edward Island. Ed. Catherine Matthews. Charlottetown: Ragweed Press, 1991. 156-160.
---. “The Harim of the Hermit.” The Poets of Prince Edward Island. Ed. Wayne Wright. Charlottetown: Ragweed Press, 1980. n.p.
---. “How Could They.” Coastlines: the Poetry of Atlantic Canada. Eds. Compton et al. Fredericton: Gooselane Editions, 2002. 225-226.
---. “It is unbroken.” Island Voices: John Smith. Charlottetown: University of Prince Edward Island, 2006.
---. “Just as Recapitulation.” The New Poets of Prince Edward Island. Ed. Catherine Matthews. Charlottetown: Ragweed Press, 1991. 161.
---. “Letter from the Remembered World.” The Poets of Prince Edward Island. Ed. Wayne Wright. Charlottetown, PEI: Ragweed Press, 1980. n.p.
---. “Magic Prose.” Meetings with Maritime Poets. Interview by Anne Compton. Markham: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 2006. 365-397.
---. “The Man Who Wanted to Build an Elephant.” The Poets of Prince Edward Island. Ed. Wayne Wright. Charlottetown: Ragweed Press, 1980. n.p.
---. Maps of Invariance. Markham: Fitzhenry and Whiteside Limited, 2005.
---. “Meditation on a Cherry Pit.” The Poets of Prince Edward Island. Ed. Wayne Wright. Charlottetown: Ragweed Press, 1980. n.p.
---. “Meditations on a Cherry Pit.” Island Voices: John Smith. Charlottetown: University of Prince Edward Island, 2006.
---. Midnight Found You Dancing. Charlottetown: Ragweed Press, 1986.
---. “The muted.” Coastlines: the Poetry of Atlantic Canada. Eds. Compton et al. Fredericton: Gooselane Editions, 2002. 223.
---. Of the Swimmer Among the Coral and of the Monk in the Mountains. Charlottetown: Square Deal Publications, 1976.
---. “Only a minute fraction.” Island Voices: John Smith. Charlottetown: University of Prince Edward Island, 2006.
---. “Sandra, 8 p.m.” Island Voices: John Smith. Charlottetown: University of Prince Edward Island, 2006.
---. “Short Program For A Dancer.” The Poets of Prince Edward Island. Ed. Wayne Wright. Charlottetown: Ragweed Press, 1980.
n.p.
---. Strands the Length of the Wind. Charlottetown: Ragweed Press, 1993.
---. Sucking-Stones. Dunvegan: Quadrant Editions, 1982.
---. “The unicorn.” Coastlines: the Poetry of Atlantic Canada. Eds. Compton et al. Fredericton: Gooselane Editions, 2002. 226-227.
---. “The world: further hypothesis.” Island Voices: John Smith. Charlottetown: University of Prince Edward Island, 2006.
---. Winter in Paradise. Charlottetown: Square Deal Publications, 1972.
---. “You Wanted to Hear.” Coastlines: the Poetry of Atlantic Canada. Eds. Compton et al. Fredericton: Gooselane Editions, 2002. 223-224.
Secondary Sources:
Helwig, David. “Smith: A Selective Biographical Sketch.” Canadian Notes and Queries 78 (2010): 6.
Hickey, David. “Never Mind the Streets of Paris: An Introduction to John Smith.” Canadian Notes and Queries 78 (2010): 5.
Leckie, Ross. “Over the Precipice.” Canadian Notes and Queries 78 (2010): 28-30.
Lemm, Richard. “Mutual Pleasure: John Smith as Teacher.” Canadian Notes and Queries 78 (2010): 7-10.
MacLaine, Brent. “In Search of a Sacred Space.” Canadian Notes and Queries 78 (2010): 23-26.
Tierney, Matthew. “On the Poetry of John Smith, Quantum Mechanics, and Mammoths.” Canadian Notes and Queries 78
(2010): 19-20.
Wells, Zacariah. “Peeing Unrepentantly Into Infinity: John Smith’s Fireflies in the Magnolia Grove.” Canadian Notes and Queries 78 (2010): 11-13.
Wilson, R. Alan. “Good Seeing.” Canadian Notes and Queries 78 (2010): 21-22.
Smith, John. “All Light.” Coastlines: the Poetry of Atlantic Canada. Eds. Compton et al. Fredericton: Gooselane Editions, 2002. 225.
---. “Another Bamboo Poem.” The Poets of Prince Edward Island. Ed. Wayne Wright. Charlottetown: Ragweed Press, 1980. n.p.
---. “At North Cape.” Landmarks: An Anthology of New Atlantic Canadian Poetry of the Land. Eds. Hugh MacDonald and Brent MacLaine. Charlottetown: Acorn Press, 2001. 133.
---. “Beyond the Ridge of Everything: Selected Sonnets of John Smith.” Canadian Notes and Queries 78 (2010): 14-18.
---. “Early Morning Was.” Coastlines: the Poetry of Atlantic Canada. Eds. Compton et al. Fredericton: Gooselane Editions, 2002. 224.
---. Fireflies in the Magnolia Grove. Charlottetown: Acorn Press, 2004.
---. “The Fourth Wall.” The New Poets of Prince Edward Island. Ed. Catherine Matthews. Charlottetown: Ragweed Press, 1991. 162.
---. “From the Top of a Donkey.” The Poets of Prince Edward Island. Ed. Wayne Wright. Charlottetown: Ragweed Press, 1980. n.p.
---. “Gates.” Island Voices: John Smith. Charlottetown: University of Prince Edward Island, 2006.
---. “Granite Outcrops.” The New Poets of Prince Edward Island. Ed. Catherine Matthews. Charlottetown: Ragweed Press, 1991. 156-160.
---. “The Harim of the Hermit.” The Poets of Prince Edward Island. Ed. Wayne Wright. Charlottetown: Ragweed Press, 1980. n.p.
---. “How Could They.” Coastlines: the Poetry of Atlantic Canada. Eds. Compton et al. Fredericton: Gooselane Editions, 2002. 225-226.
---. “It is unbroken.” Island Voices: John Smith. Charlottetown: University of Prince Edward Island, 2006.
---. “Just as Recapitulation.” The New Poets of Prince Edward Island. Ed. Catherine Matthews. Charlottetown: Ragweed Press, 1991. 161.
---. “Letter from the Remembered World.” The Poets of Prince Edward Island. Ed. Wayne Wright. Charlottetown, PEI: Ragweed Press, 1980. n.p.
---. “Magic Prose.” Meetings with Maritime Poets. Interview by Anne Compton. Markham: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 2006. 365-397.
---. “The Man Who Wanted to Build an Elephant.” The Poets of Prince Edward Island. Ed. Wayne Wright. Charlottetown: Ragweed Press, 1980. n.p.
---. Maps of Invariance. Markham: Fitzhenry and Whiteside Limited, 2005.
---. “Meditation on a Cherry Pit.” The Poets of Prince Edward Island. Ed. Wayne Wright. Charlottetown: Ragweed Press, 1980. n.p.
---. “Meditations on a Cherry Pit.” Island Voices: John Smith. Charlottetown: University of Prince Edward Island, 2006.
---. Midnight Found You Dancing. Charlottetown: Ragweed Press, 1986.
---. “The muted.” Coastlines: the Poetry of Atlantic Canada. Eds. Compton et al. Fredericton: Gooselane Editions, 2002. 223.
---. Of the Swimmer Among the Coral and of the Monk in the Mountains. Charlottetown: Square Deal Publications, 1976.
---. “Only a minute fraction.” Island Voices: John Smith. Charlottetown: University of Prince Edward Island, 2006.
---. “Sandra, 8 p.m.” Island Voices: John Smith. Charlottetown: University of Prince Edward Island, 2006.
---. “Short Program For A Dancer.” The Poets of Prince Edward Island. Ed. Wayne Wright. Charlottetown: Ragweed Press, 1980.
n.p.
---. Strands the Length of the Wind. Charlottetown: Ragweed Press, 1993.
---. Sucking-Stones. Dunvegan: Quadrant Editions, 1982.
---. “The unicorn.” Coastlines: the Poetry of Atlantic Canada. Eds. Compton et al. Fredericton: Gooselane Editions, 2002. 226-227.
---. “The world: further hypothesis.” Island Voices: John Smith. Charlottetown: University of Prince Edward Island, 2006.
---. Winter in Paradise. Charlottetown: Square Deal Publications, 1972.
---. “You Wanted to Hear.” Coastlines: the Poetry of Atlantic Canada. Eds. Compton et al. Fredericton: Gooselane Editions, 2002. 223-224.
Secondary Sources:
Helwig, David. “Smith: A Selective Biographical Sketch.” Canadian Notes and Queries 78 (2010): 6.
Hickey, David. “Never Mind the Streets of Paris: An Introduction to John Smith.” Canadian Notes and Queries 78 (2010): 5.
Leckie, Ross. “Over the Precipice.” Canadian Notes and Queries 78 (2010): 28-30.
Lemm, Richard. “Mutual Pleasure: John Smith as Teacher.” Canadian Notes and Queries 78 (2010): 7-10.
MacLaine, Brent. “In Search of a Sacred Space.” Canadian Notes and Queries 78 (2010): 23-26.
Tierney, Matthew. “On the Poetry of John Smith, Quantum Mechanics, and Mammoths.” Canadian Notes and Queries 78
(2010): 19-20.
Wells, Zacariah. “Peeing Unrepentantly Into Infinity: John Smith’s Fireflies in the Magnolia Grove.” Canadian Notes and Queries 78 (2010): 11-13.
Wilson, R. Alan. “Good Seeing.” Canadian Notes and Queries 78 (2010): 21-22.
