A Spring of Roses

Available on Amazon!

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Work in the Works

What you find below may or may not be a completed work. It might be a poem or story I'm still working on, something that I feel is completed (or at least as good as it's going to get), or just an idea I want to explore. It may even be older work you've seen before that I want to revisit.

I hope you'll enjoy exploring my little site. Note that there may be links scattered within some work, so click away when you find them. I've linked many poetic terms to a Glossary of Terms as well. (The glossary will open in a separate window.) Any and all suggestions always welcome! Just click this link to my email when you see it:

Email: Tom Loper

Updated on 7/14/26 (newest)

I thought it might be interesting to post an original version of a poem alongside a revised version. This is what happens when what I write never feels finished, never feels quite right, and always needs to be improved. I would love to hear what you think. Please email me.

The poem is called The Barn; some of you may have seen it before. I originally posted it on 3/3/24, and you can read some background about it by scrolling down this page to that date. But for now, try reading the side-by-side comparison by clicking this link.

The original poem was written about two years ago. I finished the revised version last week.

Updated on 8/14/25

I have updated "The Jeopardy! Experience” with an additional chapter, a few pictures, links, and easier navigation. It’s the anniversary this month of Lynn’s appearance on Jeopardy! in 1992. Time is a strange thing. If I close my eyes, it disappears, and I’m in Hollywood like it was yesterday.

While I haven’t been updating my website (and I’m sure all my fans have noticed—both of them), I’ve been working on a new book. I have a lifetime of poems, stories, and essays. A few of them may be worthy of inclusion. We’ll see. Stay tuned.

My little chapbook (A Spring of Roses) on Amazon got panned by an angry soul I came across while discussing politics online. (Politics has gotten weird. As Hunter Thompson said, “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”) Retribution is the new love. Although they never purchased or read my book, this loving, self-described Christian and a couple of their minions left one-star reviews. I admit that I may be biased, but I don’t think A Spring of Roses is that bad. If you agree, and you can figure out how to do it, maybe you could write your own review of my little book on Amazon. Apparently, you don’t have to buy it to review it; as I said, things are weird these days! By the way, A Spring of Roses is also available at Words Matter Book store in Pitman, NJ, and The Newark Arts Alliance in Newark, DE.

Updated on 3/3/24

On a walk last year, I passed what used to be called the Talley Garden. Lynn knew the history of the Talley family and their 19^th century house and farm. I'm sure she told me the story over the years, but my memory has grown fallow and unproductive. Like all farms around here, invasive suburban houses have sprouted in the once-productive fields. I remember the garden clearly. I watched as construction equipment swallowed and spat out what remained of the perennials, preparing the ground for the three houses that now infest what was once Mr. Talley's love. But behind the three houses, hidden in a stand of random trees, is Mr. Talley's barn. I paused when I realized what the grey wooden structure was. It's hard to see as you pass by in your car. I'm not sure how long I stood looking.

It's taken much longer than planned, but a poem has finally grown.

Updated on 12/1/23

For my last reading at Words Matter Bookstore in Pitman, NJ, I did my newest poem, Habit. I picked up plenty of things arriving at this point in my life, but never the smoking habit. As my shadow grows longer behind me, I'm looking back at the past, not so much at the shorter dead end ahead. This memory of my dad smoking brought back happy thoughts, like the way he'd joke, "People complain about how hard it is to quit smoking. That's nonsense; I've done it hundreds of times!" As I get older, I've developed a habit of thinking about consequences.

Updated on 4/30/23

There's something new in the Nonfiction section called Rosie The Cat. I wish it was in the Fiction section.

Updated on 4/13/23

Two summers after Lynn died in April 2020, I wrote a piece I’ve never shared about something she told me during our last vacation in what she called “Undisclosed Location”—Avalon. I wrote the following when I returned to the tiny house we’d rented for at least two decades. It was probably a mistake; the writing and the returning sent me into a darkness I’d never known. But the day after I started this poem, my niece and her husband visited for the afternoon with their two precious children, and that produced a guiding light and a finished poem called Simon Says. And now I can share what has been hidden away.

I recently found a file on Lynn’s old laptop confirming things I’d learned and prompting me to share this now. I’ve included Lynn’s file just as I found it and placed it at the end of this disturbing piece called The Story of Margaret Elizabeth.

Updated on 3/30/23

There's been another school shooting, this time in Nashville. How can I stay silent? I've written a very short story, a satire called Blades of Grass. Please read the description, either before or after reading the story, found on the Fiction page.

Updated on 1/06/23

I wrote this poem two years ago tommorrow. It's an acrostic blank verse.

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Email: Tom Loper