Just This - by John Brehm (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A powerful collection of poems from the bestselling creator of The Poetry of Impermanence, Mindfulness, and Joy.

In Just This, beloved poet John Brehm returns with a rich and inclusive collection of his best poems. As he faces his own mortality and health challenges, Brehm offers us a moving, elegant, and refreshingly honest look at moments of beauty, pain, and insight in his own life. The collection also contains a substantial selection of poems from his previous books, allowing us to see the evolution of his work over the past twenty years, as his Dharma practice and his poetry practice become more integrated.

For readers, the lively, accessible poems in Just This may come to feel like companions--offering wisdom, comfort, and the blessed relief of laughter--as they walk through the ten thousand joys and sorrows of their own lives.

Review Quotes

"Brehm's poems engage us immediately, without pretense, without fanfare, as if seeking no private insight about transcendence, only a hope that writer and reader can together gain a perspective that may reconcile them with the world. This braiding of hope and experience is obvious from his earliest books, but it becomes central in his more recent work as the poet confronts the challenges of age and illness. Just This is a book of wonderful freshness, the kind that makes us feel, as Thoreau might say, that it was written this morning."--Carl Dennis, author of Earthly Virtues and Practical Gods, winner of the Pulitzer Prize

"I hope copies of this book will be passed out by the ferryman at the River Styx crossing. Of course, we all would have benefited from it earlier, but better late than never. Who knows how long that crossing might take?"--Red Pine, author of Zen Baggage

"Underpinning all of John's work is a warm and compassionate heart, feeling the ten thousand joys and ten thousand sorrows of our life's journey, as well as the liberating humor embedded in our many human foibles."--Joseph Goldstein, author of Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening

"What do you hope to find in poetry? Wisdom, humor, delight? Acerbic wit? Reverence, irony, profound insight? Look no further. John Brehm's Just This has them all. In splendid abundance. With thirty-seven new poems and selections from four previous collections, Brehm leads you to 'the mystical realm that shimmers / like a heat mirage at the center of all things.' At that crux, this masterful poet ignites what he aptly calls 'little fires of consciousness.' Take note: our fraught world is offering you a bright boon named Just This. By all means, say yes to this luminous gift."--Paulann Petersen, Oregon Poet Laureate Emerita

About the Author

John Brehm is the author of four previous books of poetry: Sea of Faith, Help Is on the Way, No Day at the Beach, and Dharma Talk. He has published two anthologies, The Poetry of Impermanence, Mindfulness, and Joy and The Poetry of Grief, Gratitude, and Reverence, as well as a book of essays, The Dharma of Poetry: How Poems Can Deepen Your Spiritual Practice and Open You to Joy. He lives in Portland, Oregon, and can be found online at johnbrehmpoet.com.