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John Brehm’s latest book of poems is Help Is on the Way, and he is currently editing an anthology called The Poetry of Impermanence, Mindfulness, and Joy. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
The red hair and freckles, puffy cheeks / and constant perspiration amplified / his otherness. No one spoke to him. / But why do I see his face so clearly now, / the fear and loneliness in his eyes? / The faces of all the others I’ve forgotten.
August 2022— from “Wanting Not Wanting” | I wish I didn’t / want things / to be other / than they are
June 2020Waiting for the poetry reading / to get started, I turn around / to apologize to the man / sitting diagonally behind me / for blocking his view.
May 2016Often I wonder: / Is the earth trying to get / rid of us, shake us off, / drown us, scorch us / to nothingness?
April 2016It’s no day at the beach / being me, I said. / It’s no walk / in the park. / I can see that, / she said.
August 2013Just under the dairy / farm’s hayloft, / a four-day-old calf, / big, soft, earth- / colored eyes, / looked exhausted, / slightly affronted
May 2011Has something we published moved you? Fired you up? Did we miss the mark? We’d love to hear about it.
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