Welcome. This website is "under construction." Many poems are here now. I do not know how many more are on the way. I like to think of it as a "cathedral" of poetry in that there is much within that is a reflection of the divine and eternal for me. You might think so as well.
While I have worked on these poems over many years, often revising and editing them, I think they are close to a final state. I never know when I might change a word or more here and there. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy them.
My email address is jpdem@sover.net.
What's new? As of November 6, 2009, I've penned and included a new sonnet titled "Logic & Poetry." It's in the Recent Poems section.
As of December 9th, I've included excerpts from a play I wrote when I was in my late twenties about Shakespeare dying, a play in which the playwright makes peace with his characters before passing into final peace. The section devoted to the excerpts takes its title from the title of the play, The Heart of Master Shakespeare.
December 16th, I've included a new sonnet in the Recent Poems section entitled, "A Tree of Life Poem."
January 11th, I've included two new sonnets, also in the Recent Poems section, entitled, "With a Word"
and "In Our Lonely Ways."
January 26th, I've written a poem on Abraham. It's in the Recent Poems section, entitled, "Of Abraham." I wrote it as I was struck my the passage in Genesis which describes Abraham looking at the cities of the plain after they were destroyed with smoke "rising like fumes from a furnace." I wrote the poem in my wonder as to what he could have been thinking or feeling.
You might have noticed the new adage in the footer below, "Silence is the Mother of Us All." I became aware of the truth of this in a dream in which I was very aware of agreeing to include it in my website. What is important, I think, about this adage is that it reveals a truth important for day to day living: we all need mothering now and then and we can turn to the comfort of our mother in silence -- silence mothers us. This adage is in accord, I believe, with the conception of Mary as the Mother of God. Mary's silence pervades the gospel stories. And if Silence could speak, would it not proclaim something akin to the Magnificat? In other words, this adage does not diminish the role of Mary as proclaimed by the Church.