Jerry Jenkins
Jerry Harrison Jenkins has been writing poetry since 1993, and his work has been published in The Formalist, The Lyric, Echoes, Mobius, Feelings, Pirate Writings, Star*Line, Dream International Quarterly, and Harp-Strings, as well as numerous worldwide web sites.
His poetry has won awards in competitions sponsored by Poetic Eloquence, The Devil's Millhopper Press, and the World Order of Narrative and Formalist Poets. His recent chapbook, "Avian" won second place in the 1996 chapbook competition sponsored by Anamnesis Press and is scheduled to appear in March, 1997. In addition, his poetry has been nominated for the Rhysling Award of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. He is a member of the Science Fiction Poetry Association and the American Academy of Poets. He is also a section leader in the Poetry Forum of CompuServe.
He holds degrees in Psychology from the University of Texas, in Computer Science from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, and graduated with highest distinction from the U.S. Naval War College. He served with the U.S. Marine Corps in Vietnam, earning the Legion of Merit. He retired from the Marine Corps with the grade of Colonel to join the staff at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, where he is Assistant Vice-Provost for Information Technology. He lives in Fairfax with his wife, Gretchen.
Jerry Jenkins believes poetry should be "clear and engage the reader in a conversation with the poet by honoring the reader's intelligence and the narrative tradition that underlies poetic craft." Below is a sample of his work. You can learn more about Mr. Jenkins and read more of his poetry by following the link to his web site, Byzantium, at the end of this document.
Minotaur's Epitaph
Remember me. This house has many rooms,
alike, innumerable, cool, austere.
It echoes with the sounds of those once here,
whose countless lives were woven on one loom
with one slim thread that has a single doom.
Perhaps I, too, may in this house appear.
Remember me.
For in this maze of silence and of gloom,
this house of time, this infinite frontier,
we come eventually to a garden where,
for all these lives, a single flower blooms.
Remember me.
Copyright © 1996 Jerry Jenkins
Originally appeared in The Formalist
Reproduced by permission of author
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