A Temple for Tomorrows by John Jeffire

“John Jeffire is Detroit’s Hero Poet. He writes gritty, feisty poems from his urban experience of being a stranger in a strange land. Jeffire’s poems make you feel, think, question and rebel against a callus world that offers little to the working people in America. John is a writer who was a wrestler, a coach, a high school teacher, and one the most unique and distinct voices on Detroit’s literary scene.  InA Temple for Tomorrows, readers will find poems that reach up, grab you by the soul and force you to look closer at the rawness of life in the 21st Century. This is John Jeffire’s finest collection. Savor it, treasure it and learn from it.”

—M. L. Liebler, poet & editor of RESPECT: Poets on Detroit Music

“John Jeffire is a bard of basements and bars, of auto plants and alleys, of motels and mass gravesites, his hard-won cred gleaned from the grit-lined streets of Detroit, which figures prominently both as setting and character that are by turns menacing and nostalgic. These poems are visceral, punching through skin and bone, apathy and cynicism to enter and tap our deepest wells of knowledge and recognition. Jeffire’s writing is vivid and brutal, even primal, yet he often pierces his prevailing blue-collar doom with thoughtful allusions to myths, history and politics. Here Jeffire delivers poetry that is at once seething and despairing, confident and controlled, adding inventive complexity that mirrors these modern times and underscores one of the book’s major themes: nothing is as simple as it seems. These poems will leave you dazed, staggering, breathless.”

—Dorene O’Brien, award-winning author of What It Might Feel Like to Hope

“Hustler. Rough beast. Teacher. Right out of the gate John Jeffire’s book shrieks. This puzzle is an homage of blood, family, war—shake downs, masques of shame, rotary phones, doing time. Its pieces are innumerable—chaos, surrender, soul, both penniless and proud; they are abandoned motels, saving face, steel and bone. They whisper Johnny Ace and a Wonder Woman. Detroit, America—eat your heart out. A Temple for Tomorrows kicks ass, takes names. At its core is an inimitable heart.”

—Jim Reese, author of Bone Chalk