Poet for Hire

Weddings

Personalized gifts like no other on your special day. Poems written for you and your guests as lifelong keepsakes, so they'll always remember the occasion.

Fundraisers

Poetry written and performed for your special cause to raise awareness or garner funding.

Blogs and articles

Thought provoking, artful, timely blogs and articles available for publication.

Special Events

Performances at festivals, concerts, and events for large or small groups.

Instructor

Classroom instruction for everyone from the very young to the very young at heart.

Personal Poem Gifts

The exquisite gift of a personalized poem.

Poet for Hire

A poem is a personal gift you can’t buy at a store.

“At a farmers market, you'll find plump organic tomatoes picked the afternoon before. You find goat cheese, hibiscus tea and grass-fed beef, lamb, pork and chicken. What you don't expect to see is a poet for hire, hammering out a poem just for you, on the spot, while you shop. But that's what you'll find at Barton Creek Farmers Market at Barton Creek Square on Saturdays. Meet the full-of-life wordsmith and lover-of-people Jena Kirkpatrick. On a manual 1970 Olivetti Studio 45 typewriter that she bought for $5 at a thrift store in Kerrville, she writes poems for whatever people will pay her. She was a hit at her mother's Christmas party, where she wrote personal poems for guests. The process is simple. People talk about the subject of a poem. It's usually about a loved one, even a pet. She scribbles notes and will ask questions to get a visual image. Musician Harve Howell hired her in writing a poem about his 12-year-old son, John. "People like to talk, and they usually get very emotional," she says, as Howell did. "Man, you did it again," the misty-eyed Howell tells the barefoot Kirkpatrick while reading, "What's That Dad."

"What Jena does is turn facts into feelings," says Howell. She's perceptive, like a big antenna. And to do that on the fly within an hour is special."

Ricardo Gándara
Austin American Statesman

"Though Jena Kirkpatrick wears may hats and wears them well, she says her latest project, composing, "Poems on the Spot," is her calling. -'I don't know, there's something witchy going on with it. The other day I made a woman cry.' Kirkpatrick says."

Madeleine Crum

The Daily Texan

Books

Writing for Positive Change is an anthology comprised of poems written by members of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Texas. The 2018 anthology features over 500 youth poets. This project is supported and funded in part by the Military Veterans Pilot Program.

www.bgctx.org