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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coming to life » flat tire » the gate » a song for barbara »

the gate 

   

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    photo by Jeff Reeve
     

    photo by Jeff Reeve

     

     

     

     
  • standing at her gate
    i hesitate
    examining the curls
    and curves
    guarding the entrance
    almost welcoming
    painted iron wrought
    in the flecks of grey
    steel showing
    the two sides
    matching twins
    reaching
    embracing
    encircling
    joining at the center

    imagining my welcome
    my pulse quickens
    when I touch the latch
    a hard little ball
    protruding
    my finger gently flicks
    up
    up
    up
    to no avail
    it slips back with each touch
    it fails to open
    something constraining
    something preventing release
    something blocking my entry

    i look across the groomed lawn
    up toward the windows
    those closed eyes
    hinting at a darkness inside
    a haunting silence resonates
    she is not home
    not available
    her gate locked

     

     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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