Author Archives: jaurquhart

About jaurquhart

Jack Andrew Urquhart was born in the American South. Following undergraduate work at the University of Florida, Gainesville, he taught in Florida's public schools. He earned a Master of Arts degree in English, Creative Writing, from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he was the winner of the Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Award for Fiction (1991). His work has appeared online at Clapboard House Literary Journal, Crazyhorse Literary Journal, and Standards: The International Journal of Multicultural Studies. He is the author of So They Say, a collection of self-contained, inter-connected stories and the short story, They Say You Can Stop Yourself Breathing. Formerly a writing instructor at the University of Colorado’s Writing Program, Mr. Urquhart was, until 2010, a senior analyst for the Judicial Branch of California. He resides in Washington State.

Vignette, March 11, 2022

Ray, rocking that goofy hat again, the one that hangs over my bed now; it’s just two days before our world will turn upside down in a Ventura ER. I imagine how he might have been nudging me on, resisting … Continue reading

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Tune My Heart

For Dillon: On the occasion of what would’ve been his 44th Birthday by Jack A. Urquhart, Copyright 2023 Occasionally, two or three times a year,I tune my heart to the memory of your faceto the sound of your voice, to … Continue reading

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In Memoriam, Raymond L. Boyington

09/1941 — 08/2022 Copyright 2022, Jack A. Urquhart A Prose Poem for Ray: From the beginning, you waited for me; You waited a lot staying put long enough for me to understand how well suited for each other we actually … Continue reading

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Raymond Boyington, 9.1941–07.2022

copyright 2022 Jack A. Urquhart (For Raymond, who knew me well — and loved me anyway.) After a four-month battle with aggressive brain cancer, Raymond Lee Boyington of Ventura, California, passed away on July 16, 2022, while in In-Home Hospice … Continue reading

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For Dillon: A Birthday Rumination from Dad

03.08.2022 I admit it, Kiddo. I’m not as sharp as I used to be, and neither are my memories of you. The effect of advancing age, I expect — and stubborn self-protection. That said, a few things still cut close … Continue reading

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Seattle, February 2011 (for Dillon, 03.08.1979 — 08.02.2013)

How was I to know then—in the shadow of that red lacquered library, in that misting rain? How was I to know as you sprinted Spring Street that you would never come back to me again— not the onery, flesh … Continue reading

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Prose Poem: Occasionally Yours

              ©2021 by Jack A. Urquhart  For Dillon (03.08.1979–08.02.2013) Sometimes, once or twice a week, domestic distractions fail me, the baskets of dirty laundry waiting to be washed, ironed, and neatly put away, the … Continue reading

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Dillon by Proxy (in the Coffee Shop) prose poem by @EvryManJac

For my son, Dillon (March 8, 1979–August 2, 2013) ©2020 by Jack A. Urquhart  Yesterday in a coffee shop, in an incidence of unabashed affection, I saw a man lean to plant a kiss atop his preteen son’s head. The … Continue reading

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Steel, a prose poem by @EvryManJac

©2019 by Jack A. Urquhart Stainless steel was the medium he favored, forever hard and utilitarian— the price my father paid to make his way in the world. And sometimes, small in his shadow, I would watch from a distance, … Continue reading

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Returns of the Day, a prose poem by @EvryManJac

          ©2019 by Jack A. Urquhart (for Dillon from Dad) Today is your birthday. You would’ve been forty years old. Forty!  Imagine that. Sometimes I do. I imagine what you might’ve become, And how you could’ve … Continue reading

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