My Heart Is Not Asleep
My collection of poems that explore love, loss, and resilience through the journey of caring for my wife with Alzheimer’s. Finalist in the 2025 Washington State Book Awards! You may order signed copies directly, via the Contact tab. I accept payments through PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, and other apps. Available now, on Bookshop.org
Crafting Words And Images
Thomas A. Thomas is an award-winning poet and photographer based in the Pacific Northwest. With roots in Illinois and training from the University of Michigan, he has earned recognition for his compelling poetry and evocative photography. His works appear in prominent journals and anthologies across multiple languages. He currently serves on the board of the Olympia Poetry Network and remains active in creative communities. His latest collection, inspired by caring for his wife with Alzheimer’s, explores the depths of love and loss. Also available on Amazon, and other online vendors, or ask for it at your local library.
ISBN 9798989948703 Amazon Author Page
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Visions of Beauty and Story
Explore my photography and broadsides. I would be happy to have glass prints made just for, and shipped directly to you. My broadsides are from limited, one time printings, and are available for purchase directly from me. Enquire and order via Contact
More Praise For My Heart Is Not Asleep
What People Are Saying
A true kind of gift and medicine
What a blessing this book is: poems earned from the threshold of love and loss, attuned to music, drenched in gorgeous imagery, and with the steady cadence of a voice willing to stay with pain and revelation. Thomas reminds us that grief and beauty are inexorable, and that patient attunement and intimacy with beauty is a path that can carry us through.
— Anne Haven McDonnell, author of Breath on a Coal
I felt like I was kayaking with the poet
What a poignant pleasure it is to read My Heart Is Not Asleep, bittersweet as many of Thomas’s subjects are. I felt like I was kayaking with the poet, walking the beach with him, taking in all the natural wonders that offer him consolation on a daily basis. Thomas has captured the anguish of ambiguous loss— the endless ebbing that is dementia—but he has also captured the intimate connection that is still there for so long; and that love that never ends.
— Ann Hedreen, author of Her Beautiful Brain
Beautiful and powerful, sometimes overwhelming
Thomas Thomas’s tender poems of love and grief are beautiful and powerful, sometimes overwhelming the reader with their unabashed emotion: “I know, I know, I know everything loved is to be lost / and scattered; and yet the daily lesson drums / in the blood beneath my skin.” Thomas’s well-crafted poems lament the shortness of life while celebrating memory’s power to keep the past alive.
— Michael Simms, author of Strange Meadowlark
The co-hosts of the West-East Poetry Series — Susana H. Case, Lynn McGee, Carolyne Wright and Sandy Yannone — are excited to present three amazing poets on Saturday, September 13, 2025, at 3 p.m. east coast time, 12 noon west coast, 8 p.m. UK and Ireland:
MELODY DAVIS
ELLEN KOMBIYIL
THOMAS A. THOMAS
There will be a limited open mic after the reading.
Please register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/…/register/K3-0t9zwTj62IdoDWwPqpw
2024 October 3rd 5:30pm PDT – MoonPath Press Official Zoom Launch: https://moonpathpress.com/ReadingInvitation03Oct24.htm
Featured reading at Browsers Bookshop 107 Capitol Way N. | Olympia, WA 98501 With Claudia Putnam, Poet, Memoirist, Novelist https://browsersolympia.com/events/42133
9/28/24 starts at 2:00pm
EVENTS
2024 JUNE
My Heart Is Not Asleep Book Release June 1, 2024
MoonPath Press Author: Thomas A. Thomas
Check back for scheduled readings on Zoom and in person around the PNW
2024 July – All Month LONG –Tupelo Press 30/30 project
Fishtrap Summer GatherinG July 8th-14t Salem Poetry Project – reading July 16th
OLYMPIA Book Launch – Orca Books – sponsored by OPN July 26th
Thomas A. Thomas 