Scott Zeidel
Scott was born in Northern Wisconsin in 1951 and grew up in Detroit, Michigan and the Southern California desert. He is a child of the 60s and still believes in a world of peace, love, and understanding. He spent many years in academia, both as a student and a teacher. Now retired, he spends his time walking in his beloved desert, writing poetry, painting, and playing the guitar. He is married to Smoky, an avid gardener and writer, and has all kinds of wonderful children and grandchildren. Bloodwork is his second poetry collection. His first, Welcome, was also published by Thomas-Jacob Publishing.
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Scott’s poetry is quite diverse in style, from very short haikus and other brief memories, to longer open forms. His favorite poets are William Carlos Williams and Allen Ginsberg. Almost all his poetry, from shorter works like “Bloodwork” and “Not Dancing” to longer compositions like “Starry Night,” are based on true stories. Some of his poetry is in an older traditional design—“Seizure,” for example, is a sonnet and “Devils and Fools” is a villanelle.
Scott's work is sold in all major bookstores, including the following:
These poems are peaceful celebrations of the Southern California desert, Scott Zeidel’s home. He writes about the desert’s profound beauty found in simple, unassuming plants and critters like desert dandelions, blue agaves, monarch butterflies, mockingbirds, kestrels, verdins, and doves.
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But Zeidel’s poetic voice has room for other things, too—a nostalgic tribute to his youth in “Childhood Quintet,” a sweet whimsical cycle in “Four Love Songs,” the humorous satire of “Headless Chicken Fish” and “The State of the Union Address,” and the political anger of “To Be Exact.”
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Zeidel often uses a poetic language that’s simple and direct, inspired by the Japanese haiku. He uses this concise language to discuss big things like birth, death, rebirth, and time. In Welcome you are invited to enter Zeidel’s world of big questions with no answers, his world of bewilderment and wonder.
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In Zeidel’s latest work, he explores themes of love, death, time, nature, and everything that falls between the cracks. More than anything else, Scott writes poetry as little stories from personal, intimate biographical scenes. Sometimes these scenes are fleeting glimpses; other times the gaps are filled in.