JAD

About the Book

JAD is a book-length poem about the relationship between the author and his best friend, Joann Antoinette DeVito.  They were romantically involved initially, then remained best friends after the romantic relationship ended.  In JAD their real lives and personalities are blended with imaginary situations and characters to describe their time together.  James’ roles in the relationship - Father, Mother, Brother, Child, Teacher, Lover, Friend – provide the titles for the seven parts of the book.  Each part is divided into four sections or mini-stories in which the author portrays some aspect of their lives together and expresses the powerful feelings they have for each other.  A few of the stories are real, but the vast majority are mostly or completely symbolic.  The settings range from a mountain meadow to a childhood home, while many of the stories are simply the author’s thoughts.  The diction varies from matter-of-fact to strikingly picturesque.   Together the stories are designed to place the reader inside the relationship and inside the mind and heart of the author. 

JAD is original, perceptive, meticulously written, and powerfully inspirational, with numerous quotable phrases.  It leaves the reader feeling a little saner, a little more optimistic about life. 

About the Author

James Richard Hansen was born in Denver, Colorado, in 1954.  He began writing poetry in 1989, and his first book, “Progression”, was published in 2001.  His second, “JAD”, was first published in 2002.  He holds a degree in mathematics from California State University, Fresno, and a degree in Data Processing from Heald College.  Although his degrees are in quantitative fields, he has a broad and extensive liberal arts education, with a substantial background in English in addition to two decades of self-education in literature and a lifetime of avid reading.  He also writes essays, sings, plays piano and guitar, draws, exercises religiously, and is a vegetarian.  He lives in Oakhurst, California, where he works as a tutor and writes every day.

The author wants people to know that he put every ounce of effort he could into this book, and when he was finished, he felt there wasn’t a single word, punctuation mark, or any way in which he personally could have done better at the time he wrote it. 

Obviously, there have been thousands who poets who have done better, but for him at his stage of development as a poet, JAD is the absolute best he could have done.