—for Cheryl Leverette

Life gets lost
in the top right drawer of my desk.

Those three pairs of scissors once purchased?
Stuffed there way in the back.
And here’s my relation with the brilliant
woman poet, jammed
behind some stamps.


Lance Jencks has been writing poetry for fifty years. In the 1970s he earned an MFA in Playwriting and a PhD in Contemporary Theatre. In the 1980s he published his verse-based roman á clef, "The Wisdom of Southern California," then toured that region with a one-man show of the same name. Lance has been an advertising copywriter, a stock-and-bond broker, and the guy who hooks your car to the chain at the car wash. He lives today in Newport Beach, California, where he was recently featured in the epic bodysurfing movie "Dirty Old Wedge" on Amazon.