About Me

I grew up on AM radio and two-lane highways, which is either a poetic origin story or a long excuse for not knowing when to stop moving. I’ve lived in seven states – South Dakota, Wyoming, Minnesota, Nebraska, Texas, Iowa, and now Colorado, where I write from Morrison, just west of Denver where the plains gave out and the foothills start.

I write about what plain-spoken language can carry: inheritance, reckoning, work and family in the digital age, love arriving slightly late. I distrust ornament. I trust a left turn that opens into something true.

My first collection, Overseeing the Downfall (Word Poetry Books, 2020), was a finalist for the New American Poetry award. It’s a book of Midwestern poems about work, family, and the anticlimax of middle age. And about music. It comes with suggested drink pairings and playlists, because some poems ask for them.

My poems have appeared in Big Muddy, Straight Forward, Ground Fresh Thursday, Evening Street Review, The Beatnik Cowboy, Origami Poems, and other journals. I hold an MFA from Bennington College, and over time I’ve studied with Major Jackson, April Bernard, Amy Gerstler, Timothy Liu, Ed Ochester, and Matthew Lippman. I have a day job in education technology.

Thanks for taking the time to read my poems.

I also make photographs at jeffnesheimphoto.com.