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Jason O’Toole is a former Poet Laureate of North Andover, MA, author of three poetry collections and four chapbooks. His newest collection, The Strange Misgivings of the Sadly Gifted, has been published by Dead Man’s Press Ink (2025). He was co-founder of The Anne Bradstreet Poetry Contest and has served as a judge for other contests, including the Tom Nattell Peace Poetry Prize. His work is internationally published in magazines and anthologies, including Love is for All of Us and The Rhysling Anthology. He also performed as vocalist of the NY hardcore punk band Life’s Blood and has contributed to books on punk subculture. He serves as treasurer of Independent Living Resource Center San Francisco and works in elder advocacy in Massachusetts.

Our Destination

Jason O’Toole

Looking for ourselves in others
must not be a ledger
in which we always come up short

The first step: look to the stars
and declare the dunghill
is not your home

Princes fulfilling a child’s dream,
building backyard rocketships
to reach the stars, come up short

by trillions of miles, 5.88
give or take
Don’t use their lives

as a yardstick for your own
Resentment is a ghoul
guarding treasures of the spirit

Looking for ourselves among the stars
is to see the stars amongst us,
and lift each one up and out

of the mire
Be not afraid of being left behind
This is the way to find yourself

among a constellation
brighter than Orion

— Jason O’Toole

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