Metaphorical Truths

Jacqueline Jules was a featured reader at the Storyteller Poetry Review Love Story Series, Part 6 on February 23, 2025.  With Elaine Sorrentino and Jim Lewis, Jacqueline read poems previously published in Storyteller Poetry Review . Jacqueline is introduced by Jim Lewis and is the first reader on the video. The video can be viewed at this link.   

    Manna in the Morning is, quite simply, a lovely book. As she revisits holy texts, Jacqueline Jules gracefully connects ancient stories with modern times, gaining insights into her own quandaries and gently suggesting paths through which all of us may traverse our conflicts and crises. Go ahead and feast on the spiritual sustenance that Manna in the Morning provides. You won’t regret it. —Erika Dreifus, author of Birthright: Poems and Quiet Americans: Stories Jules explores contemporary faith with nuance and sensitivity, braiding together the ancient world and twenty-first century. She’s particularly interested in the roles women play in the Biblical texts and brings a lively feminist sensibility to her poems: “I’m Miriam/holding a tambourine,/dancing in the desert, grateful/for the smallest excuse/to sing.” —Katherine E. Young, author of Day of the Border Guards, Poet Laureate Emerita, Arlington, Va.   MANNA IN THE MORNING by Jacqueline Jules Kelsay Books, 2021 Av...

Photo by Diego PH from unsplash.com What is a metaphor? It is a cornerstone of poetry. Metaphors provide a tangible image for ideas and emotions. And metaphors can be found everywhere, in everything seen, heard, or experienced. Like all poets, I write to discover my soul and reach emotional truths.   I love the puzzle of words. Arranging them, rearranging them, until the words make the picture I want. Poetry helps me visualize my emotions with concrete imagery. For example my poem, “ "Missing Tokens” comments on the discontinuation of traditional Monopoly pieces. I complain that I didn’t vote “to blackball beloved tokens.” Yet I continue to roll the dice and keep playing “till I’m all out of paper money.”    In recalling a trip to Bermuda and the way houses are constructed to withstand hurricanes, I am reminded “how even in paradise one must be prepared to weather storms.” On this blog, you will find news of my most recent publications. Thank you for st...