I Saw This, New and Old Poems
Copyright 2006 by J. Quinn Brisben. Printed in the United States of America. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information address J. Quinn Brisben, 784 E 100th PL, Chicago IL 60628-1688 brisben@comcast.net.
(I Saw This was originally published by Scars Publications in 2006.)
Table of Contents
Preface
I. Revised from a 1960s Notebook
The Unities
This Was Real
In the Jail of Columbus
Pastorale
Disasters of Another War
North Side Mad Song
The Clown’s Soliloquy
The Starling
Lincoln Avenue 1968
II. Family, Neighborhood, City
Obsoletus
Dreams of my Ancestors
Toward Home
Celebrating Mozart, My Father, Beckett
Remembrances of Driving
The Family Christmas Card
Jack
Plantings
Surrogate
Magic Garden
Bear
Golden Approaches
Down by the Corner 1991
Newly Ambulatory
Equinox
Fall
Gentrification and Memory
Bruce Goff’s Cullet
Junkyard Find
III. Pain, Fear, Hope
Pain
To a Young Friend
Vision of an Old Wound
Overwhelming Nightmares
Old Wars, New War
Against Star Wars
History
A “C” Student Reviews History
First Anniversary
Perhaps from Nothing
Noir
Columbine Massacre on Hitler’s Birthday
Choosing
The Esthetics of Distance
Sabbath
Amazing Grace
IV. Fellow Traveling
Observe
Earthlight/Starlight
From a Porch Swing in Plain, Wisconsin
The Cicerone Covering the Action
The Cicerone Passes a Cornfield
Golden Gate Fog
Traveling with a Lover
Bridges
Eight Poems Written while Traveling in Greece and Turkey, September, 2003
Bergen
The Cicerone Feeling the Rodins
The Cicerone in Saint Petersburg
Eyewitness in Iraq
Yachts in Captivity
Approaching Stratford-upon-Avon
Cuernavaca 1972
Yatabaghdadu
I Saw This
