A sweeping, multi‑voiced poetic odyssey in which art, nature, memory, and music intertwine, revealing the hidden harmonies that shape the human experience. Memory of Rocks and Shells gathers the wide, shimmering world into five vivid constellations—Optics, Artifacts, Ekphrastics, Animals, and Jazz. In this far‑ranging, deeply humane collection, D.H. Jenkins traces the connective tissue between seeing, remembering, and being alive. From the luminous corridors of museums to the deep quiet of oceans, from Bronze Age pendants to van Gogh’s star‑splintered skies, from the wild poise of mountain lions to the blue fire of Coltrane’s horn, these poems collapse time and distance. Jenkins’ language—by turns intimate, visionary, and steeped in historical and artistic memory—reveals the hidden correspondences between human life and the living world that surrounds it. Whether entering a Buddhist temple, diving among whales, walking into wartime Europe “through a mirror darkly,” or listening to the ecstatic pulse of jazz, the speaker moves through landscapes where art, nature, and spirit converge. What emerges is a powerful meditation on beauty, loss, ancestry, survival, and transcendence. This collection invites the reader to pause, witness, and remember: that every object holds a history, every creature a lineage, every painting a world, and every moment of attention a doorway into the sublime. About the Author D.H. Jenkins earned a BA in Literature from American University in Washington, D.C., an MA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University, and an MFA from the University of Arizona. For seven years he taught as an adjunct professor at universities in the USA and then was awarded a Soros Teaching Fellowship in the Czech Republic. He continued his expat career as a lecturer in Oman, an ESL teacher in Micronesia, and finally as a professor of Speech, Writing, and ESL in East Asia. While a professor for UMUC—Asia, working and living in Japan and Korea, he received the Bylee Massey Award for a project in the Humanities, as well as the Drazek Excellence in Teaching Award. He now lives in New Zealand where he enjoys hiking in the Southern Alps as well as snorkeling in the Pacific Islands. D.H. Jenkins’ plays have been staged in California, Arizona, Australia, and Japan. His poems have appeared in Jerry Jazz Musician, Kinds of Cool—an interactive collection of Jazz Poetry 2025 (Unsolicited Press), The Tiger Moth Review, The Global South, The Ekphrastic Review, The Wave, Kelp Journal, Ocean Poetry Anthology 2024 (Kelp Books), and Ocean Poetry Anthology 2025 (Kelp Books)