JD DeHart

JD DeHart is a writer and teacher. He has been publishing poetry actively since 2012 and has taught students from the age of 4 to 40. Currently a high school English teacher, he is currently working on his PhD in Literacy Studies. His latest collection of poetry, A Five-Year Journey, has recently been released by Dreaming Big Publications.

DeHart blogs about books and authors at literacyworkandplay.blogspot.com

* 2023 Update: JD DeHart's poem The Sundown was nominated by the Origami Poems Project for the annual Pushcart Prize.

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► JD's Origami microchaps & selected poems are below.

Origami Microchap
The Sundown
Click title to download PDF microchap Cover: Chainlink by Lauri Burke •	The Sundown the chain-link, the stay up All Night youth. Eating breakout out because we suddenly could drive. The soccer when I couldn’t play run around me in basketball, questions of what I would trade to belong. Finally, it was a dissolving, enough rough talk of sex, ways I couldn’t be, words I wouldn’t use, tired of trying to step across that fence. These Words are containers, signifiers of unseen meanings to the rest of the universe. The barest glimpse, the bread of thought. Condensation of cognition, bubbling up on the page. Waiting to be soaked in some new wine, waiting to be added to, shared around the table.	Seeking Inspiration Live (this day) Honestly (tell your Truth). Just be (I’m still working on this). All this walk down memories is worth the visit to remember. But today is today. This Morning’s Wind 4/5/2020 had the taste of twenty years ago. A place I left, and only lately found again. Friends I lost to death and change and time. This is a season I knew and forgot in my further journeys. How much is absent, how much is gained – in months to come, who can say for sure. • JD DeHart © 2023
Worldplay/Wordplay
Click title to download PDF microchap Cover: Hot Air Balloon by Lauri Burke •	The Script I know you are following the script, I can see it in your eyes. How your pupils travel to the corners like an actor looking for cue cards. Turn the page, Fill in the blank, What do you think? Problem is, the rest of this world is not scripted. That kid over there didn’t sleep last night because he was playing video games. That kid didn’t sleep because she has to take care of her sister. That kid in the back was insulted by everyone in his life, he is incensed. So, when he acts out, it’s not an excuse, it’s an explanation – he’s just trying to mend his wounds like you do when you take medicine for a muscle ache. Life is messy, the room is representative, so just know how to freestyle, challenge your thinking, and respond. Just respond like a person would.	Worldplay/Wordplay we are the binders the wrappers, the tappings we are the high-dollar bold-faced, red-lipped snappings we are the angry, the haughty, the proud, we are the ones who must be loud we are the lowly, the dreamers of dreams, whose lives are ripped by the seamers of seams we are tomorrow, yesterday, today, give us a dragon, and we will slay we are the sleepers, the wakers, the gold, who rise up each morning, a new day to behold we are the liars, the blinkers, the blight, whose arm is so thin, whose will is so slight we are the heroes, the characters, the fictions, whose next path is contained in author’s dictions we are the travelers who go forth, in spite, who cannot simply rest, whose fight is a flight. • JD DeHart © 2019
Teacher Poems
Click title to download PDF microchap Cover design by Lauri Burke •	Motivation Little boy, little boy, why do you stare – Little girl, little girl, why just sit there – How is that you are so young and have quit – Where is your interest and how can I spark it?. • JD DeHart © 2018	The Reader How do I find that just- right book, at just the right time, giving the just-right look – How do I tell you that the world that you will fill needs thinking people, professionals who can heal – That there’s brokenness and pain, racism and sorrow, mixed with happiness, that we’re all the same – That just by adding to your mind, you add to the universe; a learned life is a blessing, far from a curse. Tell you what, I’ll just leave the book here, and you can open it if you choose. • JD DeHart © 2018
Something Verdant
Click title to download PDF microchap Cover: Grassy Green by Lauri Burke All Origami micro-chapbooks may be downloaded from this website. •	Raised This is the place I was raised, this small home, the place I learned my name, beliefs, how to be, to shake hands, exist as a polite being, This is the place I stretched my legs and began to walk on the earth. • JD DeHart © 2016	Burn Brightly Torch the poem Light up the word so that it shines Illumination for our darkened path to guide us Past the tiger's eye Past the dreaded anvil To an open place of peace and contemplation. • JD DeHart © 2016
Assembling the Moving Parts
Click title to download PDF microchap Cover image from the Web •	Assembling Line it is as if they are standing toe to toe back to back arranging the small colored pebbles pretending that if they glue them all together just right they produce a living, thinking whole being but people do not grow this way the truth is much more organic, existential, and complicated. • JD DeHart © 2014	Gravity this is the spot where the fire happened, those moments of conflagration, and life spent, so that for weeks when we drove by, we thought about nothing else but now we have moved on, now we drive past and think about our trappings and wares, our account information, and dissecting mounds of fried chicken, for we must always move on. • JD DeHart © 2014

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