James Brush

Last year about this time, I told you about a chapbook I received from James Brush. That book was called A Gnarled Oak, after James’s micropoetry blog of the same name.

I’m happy to say that this year James has sent me A Gnarled Oak 2010. Like last year’s volume, A Gnarled Oak 2010 includes four seasons of poems that James wrote as a daily meditation on what he observed walking neighborhood trails in and around Austin. James says:

. . . it’s about actively trying to re-see what is all around. The things we typically don’t notice as we go through our busy days and nights, hurrying from one thing to the next. Writing these little poems is a way for me to slow down a bit and tune in to that sense of wonder that comes from being outside and paying attention to the world going about its business.

Paying attention was the subject of my last Tree Year post. It is also the subject of my own micropoetry. I try, not just to notice, but to note, at least one thing a day. Recently someone remarked to me that the birds seem to pose for my microposts. Rather, I think that it’s I who have learned to wait and watch the birds.

Last year, I shared with you one favorite of these small poems. I’ll do the same this year, though it was really hard to choose. But here is the first poem from the first page, from the section for Spring:

Coyote Mercury:

Chasing Westward from James Brush on Vimeo.

James’s vimeo channel

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