John O. Thompson was born in Toronto in 1947, was immediately ‘re-settled’ to a farm south of Edmonton, and studied at the University of Alberta. In 1969 he moved to the UK, and has lived there since then (London, Liverpool, London). He is married to Ann Thompson, with whom he wrote Shakespeare, Meaning and Metaphor (1987). His teaching field was film and media studies; now, as an independent scholar, he is enjoying getting back more to working with words. His published poetry prior to the catches assembled here consists of Three [1/3 of] (1973), Echo and Montana (1980), and, also with Ekstasis, The Gates of Even (2002).