The Tattooed Poets Project: Larry Jaffe

Our next tattooed poet is Larry Jaffe:

Larry explains:

"I always wanted a dagger tattoo from the time I was a kid. I went to see David Zero and was thumbing through his books and spotted this dragon being slayed by a sword and said that’s it. It was a painstaking thing as I recall, especially putting in the white on the sword. He had to go over it over and over and over and over again. It is time for me to get it touched up a bit as it has faded over the years."

Here is one of Larry's poems:

Dragon Slayer

Sword pierces dragon

righteous

almost indignant

I want life over death

it is not inevitable

Sword pierces

my heart

to show I live forever

It slays

the dragons of childhood

It slays

the backstory

– Wanting so much out of life

Wring it dry

of expectation

Learn how to fly

like the eagle

fish like the osprey

hunt like the hawk

These are my brothers

now that my dragon

has been slain

© 2014 LGjaffe

~ ~ ~

Larry Jaffe is an internationally known and an award winning writer, author and poet and founder of Poets Beyond Borders (a group dedicated to human rights and reform) and iSpeax his personal writing forum. Jaffe has been hosting and curating poetry readings for several years while also co-founding Poetix Poetry Magazine (a guide to Southern California Poetry). Additionally, Jaffe was a featured poet for Daimler/Chrysler’s Spirit in the Words poetry program. Jaffe impacts audiences and readers with a rich emotional range, masterfully crafted, written from the heart and soul with clarity and understanding. Jaffe has read his work in such distinguished locations as the Japanese American Museum, the Hammer Museum, the Museum of Tolerance, the Jewish Museum and the Museum of Literature in Prague and the Dylan Thomas Centre in Wales.

Jaffe uses the aesthetic power of poetry to bring understanding to the world. He was the 2007 recipient of the Saint Hill Art Festival’s Lifetime of Creativity Award, the first time given to a poet. He is the former poet in residence of the Autry Museum of Western Heritage. Jaffe spearheaded, along with Rattapalax Publisher Ram Devineni, the United Nations Dialogue among Civilizations through Poetry project which incorporated hundreds of readings in hundreds of cities globally using the aesthetic power of poetry to bring understanding to the world.

His works include The Anguish of the Blacksmith’s Forge, Unprotected Poetry, and One Child Sold.

On the web you can find him at www.lgjaffe.com, on Facebook (www.Facebook.com/LarryJaffe) and Twitter (www.Twitter.com/LarryJaffe).

Thanks to Larry for sharing his tattoo and poetry with us here on Tattoosday's Tattooed Poets Project!

This entry is ©2014 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoo are reprinted with the poet's permission.

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