Alms for the Ravens examines how our spirits are weighed down by the frailties of our bodies and those beliefs that serve no purpose beyond upholding injustice. As Geskey writes, these poems do “not anesthetize pain, or provide[s] easy understanding, but compel[s] urgency.” The work is enriched with nods to Dante, Darwin, Bukowski and more. This voice is original, the language crisp, and his call to living a reconsidered life is loud and clear. ~Jane Edna Mohler, Poetry Editor, Schuylkill Valley Journal

Joseph Geskey’s Alms for the Ravens is a compelling meditation on life, decay, dying, and renewal viewed through a physician’s unflinching eyes. Throughout, Geskey calls on ancient myth, religion, science, Keats, Samuel Johnson, James Wright and a host of parents and children for wisdom and insight into the mystery of existence. As he writes in “Praying to Another God,” “to the craving spirits,/whose cells mock religion/and await the paeans of the earth,/either living or dead.” Through it all, he looks to the natural world–birds, trees, even the flower that grows through a crack in concrete–for comfort and understanding, proclaiming to the reader that life persists. ~Bill Schulz, Editor, Hole in the Head Review

VIGIL (2026)

Vigil examines how we find meaning, connection, and dignity amid suffering and inevitable loss. But this is also a collection that finds wonder at the sight of “hydrogen and oxygen,/ on opposite sides of a gym floor/ at a high school dance, thirsty/ for companionship, finding one/ another, their loneliness quenched.” It notices when a daughter “Quickly picks up a pill/ from the floor before the dog/ ingests it, because he has learned/ that everything that comes/ from your hand is joy.” Moving from elegy to ecstasy you will consistently find poems that don’t look away from the struggles our time-bound bodies confront while trying to achieve a meaningful life.