Thom, an anthropologist, stopped writing poetry and vanished from the poetic scene in about 1978; his work is contained in a book and two pamphlets (Ceremonial Devices and 19 songs). He is mainly remembered for The Bloodshed the Shaking House (1977), especially its startling first poem. His work, completely free of rational structures, has a dreamlike quality remarkably sustained:
Against the ore and elements
at dead heart of earth
hollowed out in wish, desire
there is a dark stream hiero-
glyphic
to carry your intention high
from death to some other blazing bed
on earth face, not mine
where black beads, black wood
by the sea rolled
shining, colour of liver
so rich in assimilated forms, the hermaphrodite
is all gift
shooting
you
into a wall of dream bees. To seek you out
wherever you are
is good.
frightening above fields
the work of creatures in
exchange, their impish glow
to things unknown It is freely given as ghost
pollen to lunar child
in tidal loops already marked
all starry, to be
come. Human in her pain & blood, a little
(...)
(from The Bloodshed, the Shaking House, 1977)
(why didn't i write any more? i can't remember. I think the quote shows how wonderful this poetry is. better than I could)