Original Poetry
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Breath
This wind in my chest swirls among the outcroppings of my heart. It scatters the gritty sandstone among the few cactus that still grow. It carries the golden eagle among the lingering cloud wisps. * * * It is said that God breathed and Adam began to live. And was alone. Until she kissed him Continue reading
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Thankful Tuesday: Yesterday (a reprise on rain)
Yesterday was blanketed shadow. And quiet murmuring, the quiet of black-out blinds against the angry sun. And yesterday was a glimpse of September in July, an invasion of coffee and sweaters and pumpkin. And yesterday was fluffy blankets and long movies; it was classrooms filled with new students and old teachers. And yesterday was a Continue reading
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taking an old friend for a walk in the rain
the water droplets had gathered in every crack; every mini ocean was overflowing its banks while a dove cooed aimlessly in the way that only a lover can, lost and forgotten on the edge of the world. but my old friend kept walking in that former way, her gait a prance, and her nose calibrated Continue reading
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Candles of the Between
The bitter taste of coffee sits on my tongue while the shadowy enigma still haunts me. * * * I woke with wet eyes and cheeks, tangled in my own bedclothes, afraid of the shadow. Where are you just before you wake from a dream? Is there a place where you live before you live? Continue reading
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The Spirit of the Silences
for all the promises once made— that God would come in power to set me free—it never happened. i was expecting a thunderstorm, or at least the odd car crash, to shake me from my chains. i heard all about identity and truth and the personal relationship with Jesus. but it never worked. and I Continue reading
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A Mystery
on sinai he came close: heaven passed within a breath. but from our first folly, the way up has been sealed until the cosmic kairos united heaven to earth—a nuclear flash, the first touch— in the groaning strain of two cross-beams. death undoing death unto eternity, the hostility of the universe tamed with the peace Continue reading
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And What is the Difference?
Once the shadows raged— dark shapes, cold and ragged, and possessed of infinite hatred and fear. But no more. For even as the light flickered and then died, the shadows melded into one. And what is the difference? Continue reading
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The End
On that loveless december day when Death had covered the sky over with his tattered gray cloak and fire climbed the mountains, on that day—that day of all days— when darkness and light ended their fight and all binaries, large and small, were stitched together, on that day as the burning snow fell across the Continue reading
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One Easter Morning (daughter)
not even married that Easter morning as some daddy’s daughter grinned through the alleluias and laughed through the creed. but we knew. those eyes bright and blue first dragged our hearts into the open— that pulsating organ raw and bleeding and full of life— giving your mother and I our first shared case of baby Continue reading
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Holy Wednesday: Judas Iscariot
I wonder when Satan first proposed the idea and how long Judas held out, how many times he said I can no more betray him than betray myself, but that was a possibility Satan understood only too well. And was it jealousy of the woman at Bethany jealously of the promise that her story would Continue reading
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I Need You
Here me Love, when I say: I’m here today in every way that you need me. Do you need me like trees need the wind to dance and spin, to swirl and send, Fall’s colors—that pigmatic skin—to the ground? Do you need me like fish need the sea—or any water really—though the sea is big Continue reading
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There Was Poetry In You Last Night
There was poetry in you last night with your salty tears on my tongue and your “I don’t know what’s wrong with me” piled onto the threshold of love and your nurse by night but Wedding Planner by day and fellow storyteller in a world of broken tales. There was poetry in the way your Continue reading
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A Feather Stuffed Pillow
A Feather Stuffed Pillow by G. C. Jeffers I looked at her wondering what was going through her mind. Noticing my look she asked if we could talk about life and love and God above. About me and you and all that is true. About eagle’s wings and just how far freedom rings. My answer Continue reading
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Believest Thou This?: a meditation
His sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. These were his brother-sister-soul of his soul-friends.The kind of friends who’ve held his beating heart while he poured out tears of frustration and anger. If a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him. And Continue reading
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Indwelling Darkness
Indwelling Darkness after “Nearest Nameless” by Charles Simic If the abyss gazes back then it perceives me my existence my indelible mark on reality. Against such otherness I turn to the fire merrily combusting in my soul. Like Hamlet, full of youthful vibrancy staring right past revealed truth to do the will of a devil. Continue reading
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Our love is . . .
. . .like the fluffy stuffed chair embracing my frame and embellishing the cushion of my lower accoutrements in padded rest and upholstered utopia . . .like the mouth of some sunset colored cavern which explores the patterned play of failing light on soft shadow . . .like the press of two human chests against Continue reading
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The Poetic Soul
I wrote the first version of this poem a few years ago. Since then, it has undergone some revisions. * * * Some say that poetic soul presupposes musical intent. But, musical intent intends music. Some say the sole aim of poetic soul centers on a scintillating combination of color as pictures. But, pictorial purpose Continue reading
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Sunday Mass at St. Teresa’s (poetry Friday)
I’ve been playing with this poem for a few years. I initially wrote it for a poetry workshop class I took. I see a man wandering the parking lot. My eyes follow him to his car where the dent in the side and the empty beer cans on his dashboard tell a sobering story. Hearing Continue reading
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O Holy Night: a meditation
Who spoke those burdensome words: obligation, duty, responsibility? Who would mire us in niceness and surface happiness while Love—raw and bleeding and born in the dark shit-hole of human suffering—holds out his torn hands welcoming all who are weary? For the Law is Love. And in his name all oppression shall cease. Self-imposed oppression no Continue reading
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Remember
Remember (for Amanda) do you remember the bleakness the shadows and the cold and the dead hearth covered in the soot of forgotten fires? do you remember life before joy you were unspoken poetry Grace unknown, Love a mystery and Beauty a truth hidden by lies? do you remember that cold night carbonara, the lake, Continue reading
About Me
Gregory C. Jeffers
Anglican Christian | Husband | Father | Teacher | Scholar | Poet
G. C. Jeffers 