Reviews

The first poem in Just This is a recent haiku by John Brehm, titled “Oncology Waiting Room.” Here it is:

Into a vase of wilted purple roses
the receptionist drops
an aspirin.

It is a perfect haiku, immediately available and present, but also humane and mysterious. Above all, it is a love song to impermanence.

John Brehm's pilgrimage began in Nebraska and took him to Brooklyn. There he honed a rather sharp edge which now as he seeks illumination in Portland, Oregon, he sometimes deprecates as an obstacle of compassion for other people.