JEFFREY - PAUL HORN - POEMS

Jeffrey-Paul Horn was born in central New York and raised by his mother in the small town of Rome. He grew up an athlete with a keen interest in art. Eventually he briefly attended the Art Institute of Pittsburgh.
Jeffrey maintained his interest in poetry since the age of 12 when he discovered the form as a coping mechanism. He was first published in Snuff Takers Ephemeris in 2014.

Throughout his life Jeffrey has worn many hats and lived in many cities dotting the United States. In 2017 the Clairesongbirds publishing house was started after Laura Williams French and Heidi Nightingale discovered Horn and grew determined to give him as well as other deserving poets exposure.
Jeffrey currently live a modest life in Syracuse NY.

​Poem 1

I broke my old guitar
To release its enchantment

It's magic

I destroyed it 
Right in front of you

To feel the contentment
Released into the open air

Maple
And mahogany

Smashed all over linoleum tile

My liaison to passion
Now kindling for the fire
That still burns inside of me

I loved her
But loved you more

I wanted to learn her
To a point of perfection

So when I'd learned 
I could teach you the lessons
She taught me

I wanted to move you
With wild folk symphonic marvel
One divine day

But 

Our love was sung
In a sweet minor key

That rang for the last time
When I broke my old guitar

And basked in only infamy
The broken moment
Of a broken man

My broken dreams
Scattered at your feet

All this as I saw
The twinkle
In the eye 
Of a daughter
For her father 
Disappear
​

​Poem 2

1
She danced on snowflakes
in midnight skies

And like snowflakes
became only more beautiful
on her journey from the heavens

She was mixed in magic
and dusted with destiny

An angel
So fair
and fit for fancy

as well as the regalia of royalty

Her,
made from ivory
alabaster
and clay

Crafted in the mud
of Valhalla

and wrapped in sacred light
to shine like diamond wine
in a king's crystal goblet

She is my greatest love

Her,

the one who could amass awe in the feircest foe

or heal the most ailing hearts
and bring them back from demise
just as she's done for mine

Her hug,

the holds that could suspend me
in astute childlike fantasy

and take me away from dysphoria

Her laughter,

the sonet
that could calm a wailing dragon

And it's all awash in my memories now



2
This I write 
in a moment of gloom

for I miss her marvels
and her feats

This I write 
in my time of agony

Befuddled again
without her,

my greatest love,
Olivia

​​Poem 3

Shadowboxing
Naked
In my shower fogged mirror
Listening to Bukowski
From my beaten and broken cell phone

We despise the same kinds of people
Me and him

I wonder if he would despise me