[5] Smith's poetry first appeared in 1972 in the blewointment press anthology, what isint tantrik speshul, and his first chapbook, White Cycle, came out in 1977.

From 1990 to 2008, he was Executive Director of the Sage Hill Writing Experience, a ten-day summer school in Saskatchewan for professional writers.

[7] He attended Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, (now Toronto Metropolitan University), where he obtained a diploma in Radio and Television Arts in 1968.

[8] In 1971, he saw and heard a performance by a sound poetry group called The Four Horsemen consisting of bpNichol, Steve McCaffery, Rafael Barreto-Rivera and Paul Dutton.

It performed in and outside Toronto and collaborated with other poets and musicians in a series of public performances, including appearances at the 10th International Festival of Sound Poetry in Amsterdam in 1977, and the 11th International Festival at Toronto's St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts in 1978.