In the 1960’s & 1970’s; the New York City art scene came alive. From the heroic Beat Generation that would help spark the Avant Garde scene & later counter-culture to the experimental happenings of no-wave bands like Velvet Underground that would help spark the future infamous NYC punk movement – some of the founding fathers of this beautiful symbiotic art landscape that often preferred to avoid the fame, copious drug use, & party atmosphere, while still using art as a form of communication & attempt to radicalize the public often were eclipsed by stronger personalities, many as interested in fame as they were infamy. But Tom Weatherly fell under the later category – often referred to as a “poet’s poet” – though we find this description reductive & far beneath the prowess of one of the New York underground’s more talented wordsmiths. Held in high esteem by the more popular poets of the time such as John Ashbery or luminaries like Norman Mailer; Weatherly also had a smaller output, focused as much on publishing his own cantos as he was nourishing the seeds of future generations. He taught workshops, organized spoken word events, but in that time managed to publish 4 works considered legendary in the annals of the New York Underground’s dense canon of art. Thumbprints (1971) remains the seminal work of this lost poet that’s legacy continues through the power of his words & complete control over language in a world where control is something many of us feel we gave up long ago.