“Life is Real! Life is Earnest! And the Grave is not its goal; Dust thou art, to dust returnest, was not spoken of the soul. –Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ? In Psalms of Life, traditionalist poet and autoethnographer, Jordan Rex Jensen unveils his inaugural poetry collection by paying tribute to the pre-twentieth century bards who have influenced his work, the foremost of whom is Longfellow. He also provides a poetic sampling of his own unique pedagogy of personal leadership, soon to be unveiled in the upcoming publication of his doctoral dissertation on the subject. For Jensen, all good poetry ought to accomplish three things. First, it ought to instruct. Second, it should inspire noble actions based on that instruction. Third, it ought to provide to the reader sentient pleasure, both visually and aurally. As a doctoral candidate in education and a scholar of self-leadership, Jensen’s pen, like Longfellow’s, is unabashedly didactic and unashamedly rhyming. In Psalms of Life, Jensen’s poetry hearkens back to the Romantic Period by creatively aping the prosody and platform of an erstwhile era while simultaneously exercising his own original and creative literary flair. The result is a scintillating assemblage of original poetry that is as fresh as it is fundamental.