Poetry Pub

Here at the Poetry Pub you will find examples of the poetry of Jeff Reeve. Some of the poems will include illustrations, either photos or art works. In some cases the illustration inspired the poem, and in some the poem inspired the illustration. Creativity has many outlets and inlets.           

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a song for barbara 

   The poem was inspired by boxes (the silence without you) a set of paintings by Barbara Monicelli . 

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    a few of the boxes from: 
    boxes (the silence without you) 
      by Barbara Monacelli
     
  •  i see you there

     across the room

     standing in a box

     naked

     baring your hurting soul to mine

     as i awaken into a dream

     feeling the silence of your scream

     feeling it resonate within the walls

     hearing only the drop of a tear

     as it slowly travels to the edge

     of your trembling lips

     before tumbling down

     into the box

     

     a box created and once filled with

     moments of love

     exciting exaltations of passion

     joyous laughter

     warming comfort

     tender communions and

     flirtatious little smiles

     a box now empty

     except for you

     

     and those memories floating

     on the teardrops shed by you

     in the silence of the night

     listening

     for the whisper of an intimate breath

     for the sound of a lover’s footstep

     for the gentle singing of a song of love

     but only a single heart beat breaks

     the silence of the night

     and then i see you collapse

     enfold yourself into the box

     as the dawn breaks

     as i awaken from a dream

     i see you wrap yourself up

     creating a designer box of love

     a present for your next lover

     

     as i open my eyes

     i imagine a slight glow

     a moment of sparkling light

     where you should be standing

     as i open my eyes

     a single tear releases from my lash

     sketching a pathway down my cheek

     to flavor the hint of a smile

     rising on my lips

     a smile knowing you will

     in a mended time

     reopen the box

     

     Jeff Reeve


Links to Books of Interest

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they don't serve beer here:
and other depressing thoughts

Jeff Reeve

A hodgepodge collection of poems that opens with a tribute to one of my favorite poet and ends with reflections on the EF-5 tornado that devastated Joplin, Missouri in May 2011. The poems in between may speak of anything: love, politics, sex, and maybe a dog or a flower or an elevator.

A Coney Island of the Mind

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

The title of this book is taken from Henry Miller's "Into the Night Life" and expresses the way Lawrence Ferlinghetti felt about these poems when he wrote them during a short period in the 1950's—as if they were, taken together, a kind of Coney Island of the mind, a kind of circus of the soul.

These Are My Rivers: New & Selected Poems, 1955-93

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

"one of our ageless radicals and true bards" (Booklist), has gathered here four decades of poetry in his inimitable everyman’s voice, including more than fifty pages of new work.

Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame

Charles Bukowski

Poetry full of gambling, drinking and women. Charles Bukowski writes realistically about the seedy underbelly of life..

The Pleasures of the Damned: Poems, 1951-1993

Charles Bukowski

A selection of the best works of Bukowski’s later years, edited by John Martin of Black Sparrow Press, including the last of his new, never-before-published poems.

MoonStain

Ronda Miller

In this collection of poetry, Miller weaves stories of life, death, and love through her poetry, primarily narrative in form. From glimpses of her childhood home on her grandparents’ farm to images of a woman’s life, her loves, her losses, we learn of life’s stains, of moments that shape and become a part of one woman’s voice.

Paper Birds Don't Fly

Al Ortolani

A mix of small town memories and present day realities. They share both humor and sorrow, longing and contentment, often in the irony of a single experience. Many are set in Southeastern Kansas, a geographical region rich in the texture of its free-thinking people. The poems pinch the mundane arm. They bleed with the colors of everyday experience

Cataloguing Pain

Allison Blevins

Explores motherhood, sexuality, and queerness as it juxtaposes the author's diagnosis of MS with her partner's gender transition. As one body moves toward unfamiliarity, a state of chronic pain, a sense of being caged, the other is escaping pain, emerging into its true self, becoming free.

 

Come enjoy an evening of poetry downtown, at the Joplin Avenue Coffee Company on the third Monday of February, March, April, and September, October, November. Located at 506 S. Joplin Ave., Joplin, Missouri.  Starting at 6:00pm with an invited, published poet reading some of their poetry. Then at about 7:00pm there is an open microphone for anyone with a desire to share a poem or more. Sign up for one of the ten, five minute slots.


WHO I AM

I am Jeff Reeve, a professional writer, poet, and photographer. I reside in Joplin, Missouri.

GET IN TOUCH
jareeve@thecrackedjar.com
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