WELCOME!

The latest news:  On November 7, 2023 Jeanne’s memoir, Leaping from the Burning Train: A Poet’s Journey of Faith will be published by Slant Books. You can choose from several options to pre-order the book on the Slant website. 

Jeanne Murray Walker is the award-winning author of 9 volumes of
poetry and one memoir as well as a number of plays which have been
performed in theaters across the country and in London. She is an
Emeritus Professor at The University of Delaware, where she taught
for 40 years and headed the Creative Writing Concentration.  Jeanne
currently serves as a poetry Mentor in The Seattle Pacific Low
Residency MFA Program.  From her home outside Philadelphia
she blogs about the troubling politics of our time, reading and writing,
and the surprising power of stillness.   She travels widely to speak
and read her poems in places ranging from The Library of Congress
to Romania, from Italy to Texas Canyon Country. You can find her
papers and letters archived at Wheaton College’s Buswell Library
and at The University of Delaware’s Morris Library. Jeanne has
appeared on PBS television and is frequently interviewed on the radio.

ADAM’S CHOICE

It must have been a windy night like this       the trees swaying and hissing,               tossing their hair in desperate gestures, when he broke out of the spell       and realized it wasn’t fair.             He never chose her. When he woke up, she stood before him        like a bright goblet filling up with water.              He was thirsty.  How splendid it can be to drink when you’re thirsty,       was what he thought.  He was that young.               Now he realizes there is a stain spreading on his heart, that the name         she gave the Yak chafes him                  and she sings off key.  He never chose her.  He’d like to grab his knife           and cut off her song                but rain is slanting down and she is running toward him, her eyes terrified          under the bending, cracking maples                and a curtain pulls back in him and he takes her into his arms           and begins the long journey toward                learning to love what he’s been given.