Jeffrey Richard Taylor was born September 6, 1982, in Payson, Utah; he died, at his home in Provo, in August, 2020.

Jeff has moved on to his next verse.  While he was with us, he completed a BA degree at the University of Utah and then a Master of Fine Arts (MFA), with an emphasis on poetry, at the University of Massachusetts in Boston.  He worked as an educational administrator at UMB and also as an editor and writer at MIT.  He was the founding editor of Temporary Press, a publisher of poetry and fiction in the Boston/Cambridge area.  He published a Chapbook of his poetry, “don’t put it in your mouth” (Elik Press, 2008) and published works in a number of journals and reviews.  He was awarded a Distinguished Mention by the Academy of American Poets in 2010, and an Honorable Mention, the year before.

Jeff could study and describe powerful beauty and emotion from what many of us would discard as ordinary and plain.  He drew his most precious breath from the beauty of the world that is around us.  He was never so much at peace as he was fishing a stream while watching the shimmer of the trees, or studying the stars near a red-rock mountain. “I need / to remind myself – ” he wrote in a poem, “all water flows / into Boston Harbor, / eventually.”

Of all his greatest works, his son, Otto, held the prime spot in his heart.

Jeff leaves his son, Otto, who lives in Texas with his mother, Crystal Koe.  He is also survived by parents, Jim and Lisa Page Taylor; brothers: Mike (Andreas), Matt (Kate), Greg (Christy); a sister, Andrea (Ben) Stoddard; his grandmother, Lucille G. Taylor; and a host of uncles, aunts, cousins and dear friends. We will miss our own family “Puck.”  We pray you find your way from here.

Because of the pandemic, and distances involved, the family has determined to not hold a traditional funeral; but, will gather in a private family gathering at a later time.  We are grateful to family, friends and neighbors who have been so kind and supportive.