Lloyd Jacobs

80 Poems: (Paperback: $15, 6X9”, 108pp: ISBN: 978-1-68114-544-0; Hardcover: $30: ISBN: 978-1-68114-545-7; EBook: $2.99: ISBN: 978-1-68114-546-4; Amazon Soft Cover: ISBN: 979-8-596385-78-6; Kindle eBook ASIN: B08T8K7T25; LCCN: 2020915783; Poetry—Subject & Themes—Places; Release: December 1, 2020; Purchase on Amazon or Barnes & Noble): Like his earlier book, Before I Forget, 80 Poems is the compilation of a life. The number of poems is significant, Jacobs is at once celebrating and lamenting his 80^th birthday. Consistent with that, the poems among the 80 focus on the function and content of memory, and the uncertainty of life, particularly at advanced age. Throughout the book there is a spiritual tone of faith in the goodness of life.

“Rare is the octogenarian whose mind is so lucid and fingers so nimble as to pour forth daily poetic lines as deep and moving as those of Lloyd Jacobs.  I found myself drawn from one page to the next, captivated, entranced by rich and colorful imagery, flowing forth like spring water, sometimes cool and refreshing, sometimes bubbling hot with fury,  sometimes steaming with sultry passion, an all laced with the somber awareness of an imminent end.  His rich and full life, from Marine Corps to surgeon and then professor, from Asian jungle to concrete jungle, from desperate loneliness to lost in love, all stitched with surgical skill into brief but stirring vignettes of ten thousand memories.” –Lesly F. Massey, Ph.D.

Salvific Fourteeners: A Poem Is Not a Poem Until the Poet Is Healed: (Softcover: $15: 72pp, 6X9”, 979-8-776762-06-2; Hardcover: $30: 979-8-776762-86-4; Kindle ebook: $2.99; LCCN: 2021924409; Nonfiction—Poetry—American—General; Release: December 12, 2021; Purchase on Amazon): Here is a poet who believes poetry should speak of everyday life, not to other poets but to a broad swath of humankind. Most of all, therefore, Jacobs has striven for accessibility. The attention span of the modern person is short, Jacobs believes poems should be similarly short. Each poem, therefore, consists of fourteen lines, but few are in classic sonnet form. They are almost all written in blank verse in a language that is sophisticated but not murky. The themes are the themes of human life, its mystery and its beauty and its brevity. Love, wonder, anger and revulsion are all represented, never in bawdy language but nevertheless explicitly. The poet is more than eighty years old. The poems, therefore, often plumb memory and revisit old loves and former friends and places. The poet loves life but is unafraid of death.

100 Love Poems to God, After Kabir: (Paperback: $15, 108pp, 6X9”: 979-8-359445-03-0; Hardback: $20: 979-8-359445-31-3; EBook: Kindle: $2.99; LCCN: 2022919644; Nonfiction—Poetry—Subjects & Themes—Inspirational & Religious; Release: November 1, 2022; Purchase on Amazon): Currently, Jacobs attempts to live in God’s presence, pursuing the pathway blazed by Kabir himself. Kabir was a fifteenth century mystic, poet and philosopher, perhaps in that order. His poems are paeons of ecstasy and joyful prayer. This revival of 100 of his poems is consistent with Jacobs’ own work at this stage of his life. 

The Last Flight Out: New and Selected Poems (Softcover: $20: ISBN: 978-1-68114-577-8; Hardcover: $25: ISBN: 978-1-68114-578-5; Kindle: $2.99; LCCN: 2023905132; American poetry collection by one author; Release: July 1, 2023; purchase via Amazon links): includes over 140 poems, many of which are new, while others have been published in small magazines or in previous books of the author. This collection has been created to be a summary of Jacobs’ work from 2015 until 2023, and constitutes the bulk of what he wants to be remembered. The subject matter of the poems are the eternal human themes of love, joy, age and death. The title of the book bespeaks the author’s intent that this be his last major collection.

In 1962 Lloyd Jacobs was honorably discharged after four years of active duty in The United States Marine Corps. After undergraduate study at Miami University of Ohio, Jacobs attended The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and postdoctoral study at three institutions. He practiced Surgery for twenty years, becoming Professor of Surgery at the University of Michigan. He was appointed President of the Medical College of Ohio in 2003 and became president of the combined institution when the Medical College merged into the University of Toledo. He served in this role until 2014. At that time, he renewed his commitment to poetry and now writes poetry daily.