Overview
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.
NEW POEMS
I
Oncology Waiting Room
Visitation with the Radiologist
Side Effects
The Importance of Sleep
What We Want on Our Headstones
Meditation
On Pain and Suffering
Primal Knowledge
Poem About Nothing
To-Do List
What He Looks Like
Update
Prayer
Reprieve
II
“now that I’m old and sick”
“gift of aging”
“I remember”
“just before dawn”
“newspaper ad”
“bonsai shop”
“sunlit path”
“tip of the tongue”
“looking up”
“they take turns”
“summer storm”
“she leans a little”
“rehearsing the argument…”
“no self—"
“so thin!”
“writer’s block”
“long-winded”
“perfect typo”
“I forgive myself”
“tomorrow”
"burst of wildflowers—"
“reading to just four people—"
“after the updates”
from Sea of Faith (2004)
Layabout
If Feeling Isn’t In It
At Coney Island
When My Car Broke Down
My Emotions Are Like Fish
Love Stories
Postcard from the Heartbreak Hotel
Sea of Faith
The Poems I Have Not Written
Landscape Survey
Sound Check, Lower Manhattan
The Blasted Tree
The Fence
Supplication at the River
Passage
The Inner Life
Nine-to-Five
Mistakes of One Kind or Another
Sotto Voce
Autumn
from Help Is on the Way (2012)
Pompeii
Valid Photo Identification Required
Of Love and Life Insurance: An Argument
Getting Where We’re Going
Change in Service
Dear Internal Revenue Service
Fourth of July
So Long
On the Subway Platform
Over and Under
To Make the Wound More Beautiful
from No Day at the Beach (2020)
Back Then
Tough Town
Swifts
Sleeping in the Wind
Fedora
Falling Hours
Signs and Wonderings
Blathery Performance
I Decided to Weigh My Head
Genius Offshore
No Day at the Beach
Sightlines
The Empty Chair
Intrigue in the Trees
In Brooklyn
Etiquette
Greatness
Nebraska
Walk the Talk
Field of Vision
Dick’s Kitchen Metaphysical
Here: An Epithalamion
Over the Moon
from Dharma Talk (2023)
Morning Dilemma
Sleep Thief
Wishful Thinking
Wanting Not Wanting
Dharma Talk
Emptiness Is Not Enough
Flight Path
The Things We Tell Each Other
Metta
“cold spring morning”
“not so different”
“feet hurt, back hurts”
“coming unstitched”
“I put my glasses on”
“scattered crocuses”
“the pain is still there”
“regretting something I said”
“fifty years ago: seeds”
“lost in a fantasy”
“sleepless night”
“gently with an upturned broom”
Non-Harming
Dudley Ball
Design
Big Leaf Maples
Something and Nothing
No Self
Passing Through
Above the Clackamas
On Turning Sixty-Four
Just This
Morning, East Wallingford
Acknowledgments
About the Author
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.
NEW POEMS
I
Oncology Waiting Room
Visitation with the Radiologist
Side Effects
The Importance of Sleep
What We Want on Our Headstones
Meditation
On Pain and Suffering
Primal Knowledge
Poem About Nothing
To-Do List
What He Looks Like
Update
Prayer
Reprieve
II
“now that I’m old and sick”
“gift of aging”
“I remember”
“just before dawn”
“newspaper ad”
“bonsai shop”
“sunlit path”
“tip of the tongue”
“looking up”
“they take turns”
“summer storm”
“she leans a little”
“rehearsing the argument…”
“no self—"
“so thin!”
“writer’s block”
“long-winded”
“perfect typo”
“I forgive myself”
“tomorrow”
"burst of wildflowers—"
“reading to just four people—"
“after the updates”
from Sea of Faith (2004)
Layabout
If Feeling Isn’t In It
At Coney Island
When My Car Broke Down
My Emotions Are Like Fish
Love Stories
Postcard from the Heartbreak Hotel
Sea of Faith
The Poems I Have Not Written
Landscape Survey
Sound Check, Lower Manhattan
The Blasted Tree
The Fence
Supplication at the River
Passage
The Inner Life
Nine-to-Five
Mistakes of One Kind or Another
Sotto Voce
Autumn
from Help Is on the Way (2012)
Pompeii
Valid Photo Identification Required
Of Love and Life Insurance: An Argument
Getting Where We’re Going
Change in Service
Dear Internal Revenue Service
Fourth of July
So Long
On the Subway Platform
Over and Under
To Make the Wound More Beautiful
from No Day at the Beach (2020)
Back Then
Tough Town
Swifts
Sleeping in the Wind
Fedora
Falling Hours
Signs and Wonderings
Blathery Performance
I Decided to Weigh My Head
Genius Offshore
No Day at the Beach
Sightlines
The Empty Chair
Intrigue in the Trees
In Brooklyn
Etiquette
Greatness
Nebraska
Walk the Talk
Field of Vision
Dick’s Kitchen Metaphysical
Here: An Epithalamion
Over the Moon
from Dharma Talk (2023)
Morning Dilemma
Sleep Thief
Wishful Thinking
Wanting Not Wanting
Dharma Talk
Emptiness Is Not Enough
Flight Path
The Things We Tell Each Other
Metta
“cold spring morning”
“not so different”
“feet hurt, back hurts”
“coming unstitched”
“I put my glasses on”
“scattered crocuses”
“the pain is still there”
“regretting something I said”
“fifty years ago: seeds”
“lost in a fantasy”
“sleepless night”
“gently with an upturned broom”
Non-Harming
Dudley Ball
Design
Big Leaf Maples
Something and Nothing
No Self
Passing Through
Above the Clackamas
On Turning Sixty-Four
Just This
Morning, East Wallingford
Acknowledgments
About the Author
While major retailers like Amazon may carry Just This (New and Selected Poems), we specialize in bulk book sales and offer personalized service from our friendly, book-smart team based in Portland, Oregon. We’re proud to offer a Price Match Guarantee and a streamlined ordering experience from people who truly care.
We’re trusted by over 75,000 customers, many of whom return time and again. Want proof? Just check out our 25,000+ customer reviews—real feedback from people who love how we do business.
Prefer to talk to a real person? Our Book Specialists are here Monday–Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST and ready to help with your bulk order of Just This (New and Selected Poems).