Jeffrey Spahr-Summers

Jeffrey Spahr-Summers started writing poetry over 30 years ago while living in South Africa. Jeff is a photographer and the editor/publisher 
of The Poetry Victims. He is a former Chicago stage poet, founder of The Chicago Poetry Agenda and a former active board member of 
The Tulsa Arts and Humanities Literary Arts Council. 

A former member of The Greater Dallas Community of Writers, Jeff has conducted and participated in numerous poetry workshops and feature 
readings in the U.S.A. 

Jeff’s poetry has appeared in; Hammers, Strong Coffee, The Newsletter Inago (featured Poet of the Month) , The San Fernando Poetry Journal, 
Letter X, Erie, The Dallas Review, Scenezines, Voices Israel Anthology, Ebb & Flow, The Other Voices International Project, The Poetry Victims, 
Lily Literary Review (with an interview),The Coffee Press Journal, Black Medina, Poetry Super Highway (Poet of the Week [2004,2005,2006,2007]), 
Poems for You, Unlikely Stories, The Argonaut’s Boat, Blinkzine Arts Magazine, Colorado Poets Center, Haggard and Haloo, Poet Express, 
Interpoetry, CyberMuse, Red Fez Publications, Liquid Muse and Ygdrasil. 

He is in 5 anthologies; American Poetry Anthology (1982), Chicago Saloon Poets (1992), Step Into The Light (1992), 
and Voices Israel Anthology (2005 & 2007). Jeff is the author of two books of poetry; Fear of Heights (1984 [Spahr-Summers Publications]) 
and The Cherry Poems (2006 [Cherry Publications/Lulu]) . 

He lives in Longmont, Colorado, and works in an historic hotel in downtown Boulder, Colorado.


 

Kiwi

Skin of
Average
Africa brown
And rough
And furry
Grown lonely
And tough from
Too many suns
Too little water
And he’s
Green Inside
And plump
And eager
And so very
Sweet
They say

 


fear of deadlines

in dong this again i
stew on submissions i
fret over selections i
listen to music i
smoke and i
smoke i
edit poems i
chew them one at a time i
make no excuses i
wrestle i
write i
re-write i
read commentary i
indulge myself i
take my own
sweet time

 
 

Empty Boxes

What happens now
Is they become one another.

 

 
Jester Rejected

There is nothing easy about it, at
least nothing to start them laughing,
and I am nervous at how they fidget
as I lean from foot to foot, or
how they cannot look me in the eyes
when they know damn well this is funny.
So I look at them, one and all
smiles as cold as mercury and silence,
and I have to believe they’re wrong.

 
 

Don’t interrupt now...

We’re in the heartland
she’s riding a fresh horse
waving her sword about
riding up to his door...look...
she’s knocking...he is coy...
glory...glory...the shoes fit
she sweeps him off his feet

 

Staying Awake

With sheer determination
I will my eyes to stay open
Focusing first on one thing
The on another far across
The room from where I sit
Like the picture on the wall
The chairs and coffee table
Or the sofa or the fireplace
Of wood and chrome pipes
That wrap their shiny arms
Around sheet metal molding