I work at the Pub at Third Place  – and at The Pub we like to say we have two poet laureates, one of whom is Jed Myers (the other: Jim Brantingham). Jed is a fixture in the Ravenna neighborhood: along with sitting several nights a week with a glass of red wine or a Guinness at The Pub, writing or editing his many, many poems (indeed, he’s one of the most prolific writers I know), he also hosts the NorthEnd Forum open mic at the Thai restaurant, Bai Pai, a few blocks east of The Pub. 

Jed is a romantic. He writes about love, loss, confusion and family. His poems range from short little pieces to longer works, sometimes several pages. And his poignant verses are on display in two new books: Watching the Perseids (Sacramento Poetry Center Press 2014) and in the chapbook, The Nameless (Finishing Line Press 2014).

Watching is about Jed, indeed literally, watching his father deteriorate and pass away – something I, personally, can relate with, having watched my father die from alcohol abuse. Jed’s father, however, dies from a brain tumor. He writes,

I knew his body, boxed
in oak, to be buried
in the Jewish cemetery
by Darby Creek. That day

we gathered, I laid
my eyes upon that casket
ready on its metal rack,
and, heavy, walked away.

Watching is sad, it’s solemn, it’s sorrowful, but it says, loud and clear, that despite death and it all it takes, life goes on for us.

Nameless, while the subject matter in the poems varies, the tone isn’t so different as in Watching. They too are filled with a mournful quality, a whatthehellishappeningtous questioning. But they don’t lament as much as laugh. For instance,

The old man’s lover has little pale nipples
on spare flesh—no matter. Though she’s much
younger, she’s his secret mother.

Jed has no problem baring it all. By trade he is a psychiatrist, so honesty and candor is never a problem in his work. The Monarch has published a handful of Jed’s poems already and are happy to continue to support his writing again.

We suggest you check out his new books, which you can do here and here. Or you can go to Third Place Books in Ravenna or Open Books in Wallingford to get a copy now.