I Got What I Came For

by Jeanie Greensfelder

Poetry

$13.00

69 pages, September 2017
Published by Penciled In
Designed by Benjamin Daniel Lawless

These poems speak with a clarity and composure that illuminate the moments Jeanie Greensfelder asks us to consider. And these moments span a life. Girls hoping for kisses ride a merry-go-round; a mother hides evidence of a teenage and failed marriage; a daughter works a jigsaw puzzle, filling in “the tedious sky and earth”; a couple celebrating a 42nd anniversary debates their first date; a sudden illness leaves the speaker “almost believing life will end.” There is a bite to these poems I trust and a grace to their making I admire. Greensfelder writes “At the jasmine vine by my front door, a raindrop, suspended on a stem, stops me” and I, too, pause in gratitude. - Lisa Coffman, author of Less Obvious Gods and Likely

What I Want and What I Can Have

After dinner, I try to digest
kale and cauliflower in my longing
to live longer, and a root-beer float
in case my world ends tomorrow.

I play the gamble game with exercise
and diet, reminded daily by obituaries
featuring people younger than me:
the impossible becoming likely.

I want to go out full, embraced by my life,
the grand quilt of being here. Yet memories
are remnants, and come one patch at a time.
And like moments, most fade unnoticed.

After a storm, I take a walk.
At the jasmine vine by my front door,
a raindrop, suspended on a stem, stops me.
What I want, what I can have, merge.

ACCOLADES

Jeanie offers a lyrical description and empathetic understanding of what makes a good life. — Leslie St. John, author of Beauty Like A Rope

Jeanie Greensfelder’s poetry memoir shares her flaws and achievements, her loves and losses, and we respond with deep pleasure because we recognize her story as our own. — Margaret Van Every, author of A Pillow Stuffed with Diamonds

There is a bite to these poems I trust and a grace to their making I admire. Greensfelder writes “At the jasmine vine by my front door, a raindrop, suspended on a stem, stops me” and I, too, pause in gratitude. — Lisa Coffman, author of Less Obvious Gods

News

Jeanie Greensfelder is currently serving as San Luis Obispo County’s poet laureate during 2017, 2018.

Hear Garrison Keillor read Jeanie's poem “First Love” on the November 3, 2014 episode of The Writer's Almanac.

Greensfelder achieves accessibility, and Biting the Apple would be a good collection to hand to any person who claims not to be able to understand contemporary poetry.

— From Lynn Domina's review of Biting the Apple

Watch Craig Michael Davis' performance of three songs inspired by Jeanie's poems from Biting the Apple on YouTube.

Read Jeanie's poem Sixth Grade, featured at American Life in Poetry.

Lean more about Jeanie Greensfelder at her website.