Jeffrey Thomas Blackwell

MY BIOGRAPHY IN POETRY

I was born a flying fish out of water.

Middle class parents – two sons, one daughter.

Grew up in Ohio - O-H-I-O

In a city known as the Mistake on the Lake.

Why I stayed there, I don’t know,

But family first, and the kids loved the snow.

Started working when I was 8,

The same year I wrote my first poem.

In 1969 became a hippie.

Was no longer welcome at home.

Wrote my first book at 19.

Spent my life doing things beyond my ken.

Published 50 years later.

Poet first, but to survive – a businessman.

Been a ditch digger, a laborer, a salesman,

A dock worker, and production-line foreman.

Ultimately, president of two companies.

And no, I do not have any college degrees.

Spent 16 years going back and forth to China.

Started in the ‘80’s and watched it grow.

Hiring factories to make toys and coffee pots,

From Taiwan to China and India to Mexico.

Too much time spent in an aircraft seat.

Mr. Prostate cancer and I would later meet.

Sorry to be so personal, but that’s what poets do.

And for 52 years of my life, I’ve been a husband too.

I have been married twice - my beloved

Second wife, together for over 40 years now.

I dedicated my book, “Thresholds” to her,

Because she has put up with me somehow.

I have three God-sent, middle-aged children,

One of whom has special needs.

Blessed to have four grandkids

As I write this – aged toddler to teen.

Sadly, they live in different cities

So seldom heard or seldom seen.

I was blessed to sit at a Master’s knee

But there is no perfect religion for me.

Life should be as simple as basking in the sun,

“Do Good. Be Good. Be One.”

To express the mystery of a lifetime,

In the moment of a word or two – I aspire,

For it is my dream, that the reader will find

Some empathy which ultimately may inspire.