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.

Mixed Metaphors (prose poem)

              ©2016 by Jack A. Urquhart For Dillon 03.08.1979—08.02.2013 They say being alive is a concatenation of scenes, the sum of which equals a singular human performance. So it is no surprise that since … Continue reading

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Last Words: A Marriage Memory (prose poem)

            ©2016 by Jack A. Urquhart I’m through talking to you, she said, in her best aggrieved spousal tone—this before launching a litany of worst-case marital woes. Quite a list it was, and accurate; something … Continue reading

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Reflections on Selling the Family Home: the Life-Changing Challenges of Decluttering House and Mind

© 2016 by Jack A. Urquhart 1500 words Recently, in preparation for another major move, I have been reading Marie Kondo’s best-selling paean to the joys of decluttering, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and … Continue reading

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god fantasy (a prose poem) by Jack A. Urquhart

                  ©2016 by Jack A. Urquhart  (500 words) Call me crazy, but I like to fantasize about meeting god, about hooking up with the über one for a face-to-face encounter. Nowadays, that … Continue reading

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Say ‘Cheese’! A Birthday Letter to my Son

©2016 by Jack A. Urquhart (Dillon Tyler Urquhart 03.08.1979—08.02.2013) Dear Dillon, Today, with your birthday coming on, I tried from old photographs to summon some smile-making memories, a few happy commemoratives from all those “say ‘cheese’!” moments. But it seems … Continue reading

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Afterwords: Reflections on losing a child to mental illness and drugs

©2016 by Jack A. Urquhart   1600 words I do not know if I should be attempting this again—don’t know if it’s wise or useful to attempt honesty, especially in prose, on a matter so profoundly life-altering as the death of … Continue reading

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Hindsight, a prose poem

©2016 by Jack A. Urquhart “I can see you,” she says sweeping airily by, flash of Sunday-school dotted swiss, patent leather rat-a-tat heels, whiff of Skin So Soft. “Time to rise and shine!” Her voice is soprano sharp and bellwether clear, the vibrato … Continue reading

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Not on Your Life: a prose poem

©2016 by Jack A. Urquhart               We said our farewells in Seattle; You, heading off to the library in a misting rain, I, preoccupied with transit arrangements, flight delays. But I remember the smoky … Continue reading

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Sunday Morning Run (prose poem)

              ©2015 by Jack A. Urquhart Come Sunday morning, he runs the streets, pants and puffs past houses familiar since kindergarten, the former homes of former friends. Instead of Sunday School, he attends the … Continue reading

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Shelter

                ©2015 by Jack A. Urquhart (for Raymond) Purple thunder heralds the storm. At dusk, the rains begin. Outside my window a necklace of liquid pearls— strung from telephone line— captures the last iridescence … Continue reading

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