Dharma Talk - by John Brehm (Paperback)

About the Book

"In Dharma Talk, award-winning poet John Brehm explores the perennial themes of aging, compassion, emptiness, nonseparation, and more. At once poignant and humorous, Brehm's gentle, wry poems remind us that the personal and the universal are not different-and point us to the Dharma of everyday life"--

Book Synopsis

A new volume of original poetry from the bestselling creator of Poetry of Impermanence, Mindfulness, and Joy.

In Dharma Talk, award-winning poet John Brehm explores the perennial themes of aging, compassion, emptiness, nonseparation, and more. At once poignant and humorous, Brehm's gentle, wry poems remind us that the personal and the universal are not different--and point us to the Dharma of everyday life.

Review Quotes

"Dharma Talk is one of those small, rare books that feel profoundly necessary."--Carl Dennis, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Practical Gods and Earthborn

"John's work reminds me of the great Japanese haiku poets: their attention to the smallest details, compression of language, and a rich appreciation of nature and the human condition."--Joseph Goldstein, author of Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening

"Think of this collection as a Guidebook to Emptiness--to everything and nothing (which, as the poet tells us, are interchangeable). Brehm gives us a taste of that everything in images ranging from jasmine blossoms placed beside the bed to perfume the dreamer's sleep, to a brain bathed in sea salt and lavender. These collected lines hang in the air like the spider's web described in Brehm's poem Design: 'knowing / just how / much to give / in either / direction / without breaking.' Dharma Talk is full of wonders."--Danusha Laméris, author of Bonfire Opera

About the Author

John Brehm is the author of four books of poems, Sea of Faith, Help Is On the Way, No Day at the Beach, and Dharma Talk. He has also published a book of essays, The Dharma of Poetry: How Poems Can Deepen Your Spiritual Practice and Open You to Joy, which is a companion to his bestselling anthology, The Poetry of Impermanence, Mindfulness, and Joy. His poems have appeared in Poetry, Ploughshares, The Southern Review, New Ohio Review, The Sun, The Gettysburg Review, The Writer's Almanac, The Norton Introduction to Literature, Best American Poetry, and many other journals and anthologies. He lives in Portland, Oregon.