Jerry Krajnak

Jerry KrajnakJerry KrajnakJerry Krajnak

Jerry Krajnak

Jerry KrajnakJerry KrajnakJerry Krajnak
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I'm glad you came by. Hope you find some writing you like here. 

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About Jerry

Photo by Terry Poth

Welcome! Jerry is a Vietnam veteran who later survived forty years in public school classrooms and collected degrees from UW Eau Claire, Wichita State, and the University of Kansas. He shares an old cabin in the North Carolina mountains with rescue animals, grows heirloom tomatoes, and writes a little.

Photo by Terry Poth

Recent Work

Woolly Worms at the Middle School

My first one published in 2025! Thank you, editor Christine Klocek-Lim.


Chippewa Falls Used Cars


Discovering Empathy

Published in Eclectica, October/November 2024. Thank you to editor Christine Potter.


Daughter's Newest Boyfriend


At the Farm


Gardens for My Daughter


Flower Petals in the Mud


Poetry Reading


Springtime and Hopkins and You


Shopping for Real Estate with Wallace Stevens

First published in Rat's Ass Review, 2022. Thank you to editor Rick Bates and to WS for his investment advice.


Afternoon Commute

Alas, this location is now a strip mall. First published in Sublunary Review, 2022. Thank you, editor Ruslin Garrey.


Digging Out (for Richard Kirkwood)

First published in Novus Literary Arts Journal, 2021. Thank you, editor Sandee Gertz.


Walking Patricia Home


About Time


On Finding an Anonymous Notebook Full of Poems


Sixty Years Ago 

First published in Autumn Sky Poetry, 23 November 2022. Thank you to Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, and editor Christine Klocek-Lim.


Seasonal


Sea-Tac at Easter


Just Off Highway 12, Ocracoke

Remembering Ben and Boomer 

Both were first published in Rat’s Ass Review, 2021. Thank you, editor Rick Bates.


Hope

First published in One Sentence Poems, 11 November 2022. Thank you to editors Elizabeth, Natalie, and Dave.


After Reading Ed Dorn's Gunslinger, I Go Out Again to Face That Obstinate Bass

Duke

These two poems were first published in Rat’s Ass Review, 2021 and 2023. Thank you to editor Rick Bates, and to Ed Dorn for help with a hero and Robert Browning for providing a villain.


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Pieces with various North Carolina settings:

To a Turkey Vulture

The bird in this poem is an often unappreciated hero here in the mountains, cleaning messes off the nonexistent shoulders of our winding roads First published in Flee to Spring, 2021. Thank you, editor Ruchi Acharya.


Two Tiny Poems about two little woodland plants I look for in early March as I walk my mountainside trails.


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Below are several somewhat political poems that were all published in New Verse News at various times from 2022-2024. Thank you, editor James Penha.

An Old Man Worries on Facetime

Final Exam Week at NC State

Teacher, End of Week One

I've Seen This Before


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A couple other little things begun long ago, finished recently:

April Shower

Originally published in Shot Glass Journal, #38, 2022. Thank you, editor Mary-Jane Grandinetti.


Tipoff

First published in MockingHeart, February 2024. Thank you, editor Tyler Sheldon.


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Four short pieces from A Year in Vietnam:

Penicillin Day

On Friday mornings army medics pulled carpules of penicillin from our dispensary freezer. US soldiers with venereal diseases lined up in the hall of the Nha Trang dispensary where I worked and were told to drop their trousers. Our Vietnamese nurse injected them one after the other. If she felt sympathetic, she warmed the carpules first; but some Fridays she did not feel that way. First published in Rat's Ass Review, 2022. Thank you, editor Rick Bates.


My Mentor

First published as "Green Beret Psychiatrist" in Smoky Blue Literary and Arts Magazine, 2023. Thank you, editor John Himmelheber.


Sarge


Purple Heart

Early drafts of this piece were first published in Teach. Write., 2022. Thank you, editor Katie Winkler.


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Thank you to Christian Ray for your photography and your much needed editorial assistance.

Contact Me

Get in Touch with Jerry Krajnak

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Jerry Krajnak, PO Box 1618, Franklin, NC 28744

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