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    Things I Might Have Said
    Things I Might Have Said
    Things I Might Have Said
    Ebook116 pages55 minutes

    Things I Might Have Said

    By John Brand

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    About this ebook

    An erudite poetry collection of deep, resplendent, proportions.

    PERFECT FOR ANYONE
    Documenting half a century of a man’s journey, it urges readers to never give up. Replete with a lifetime of romantic yearnings, political commentary, and quiet thoughts, this book speaks to everyone via the countless parts of the human condition. Most importantly, it’s never afraid to laugh at life.
    THE BEST COLLECTION

    #TIMHS - Comments + Praise + Reviews - TIMHS#

    “I was like most, totally uninterested in poetry. I humbly admit I was wrong. After reading this my mind is completely changed. I now see poetry for what it is - a puzzle of words. Every single word needs to be perfect, seamlessly moving the metaphor while maintaining structure, rhyme, and rhythm. I BEG YOU TO GET THIS BOOK! Even if you have NEVER read a single poem in your entire life, you will be happy. This collection is full of laugh-out-loud, edgy humor (or humour as he would spell it) and deep insights. When at my worst this gave me a boost.
    I HIGHLY RECOMMEND!”
    —Anonymous Online Reviewer

    “I first met John in Ogunquit, Maine. I spent time in England and thought I knew the “Brits” - turns out, I only knew “some”. When he asked me to critique his upcoming book of course I said “YES!” I enjoy criticizing John in general, but, being busy, I kept putting if off. What a mistake - it’s a revelation! Opening the book at random is to have a conversation with John. His turn of phrase is perfect.
    Poetry was NEVER like this in school!”
    —Kent Bridges, Managing Director of the Ogunquit Playhouse

    "This volume by the irrepressible John Brand is a work of love and dedication. Each poem is a well-crafted gem, the rhythms and rhymes honed and polished, the turns of phrase masterfully rendered, the arguments cogent and solid. The messages conveyed — often mischievous and playful, sometimes...even sweetly sentimental — tug at the reader...provoke thought, and invite reflection.”
    ―Margaret Wong, PhD, Professor of Literature & Composition"

    “I’m a believer now in the power of poetry. Brand’s masterful poems are a true force of reckoning! Through his compelling words, he captures the mundane and boring qualities of life and transforms them into a gorgeous emotional symphony. Brand beautifully engages his reader on a deeply personal level.”
    —Jane, Online Reviewer

    "Brand's poems are humorous and often moving. I very much admire his "argument" for the Augustans not only in its wording but its tone and elegance. His lyrical poems recall [John] Betjeman and [Philip] Larkin, and there are of course echoes of [Tony] Harrison's earthiness. The range of form and tonality works very well, shifting seamlessly from high language to demotic. For a lover of a well-turned line or a surprising rhyme, there are any number of real pleasures here. This is a fine collection, I think.”
    —Mark Bates, PhD, Professor of English

    @About the Author@
    John Brand is professor emeritus of English and an award-winning poet. Growing up in Sheffield (United Kingdom) surrounded by the prejudice of the time and with his strong northern Yorkshire accent, he was unable to attend University and instead completed an engineering apprenticeship. Turning back to college in his late 30s, he completed an English Literature and Linguistics (Honours) degree from the University of Sheffield. Moving to New England (Worcester Massachusetts) he furthered his education at the renowned Clark University and received his Master’s degree in 1996. Retired since 2017, he now spends his time reading, writing, and traveling with his wife.

    ISBNs
    •ISBN (Print = PaperBack): 978-1-7343017-0-0 (9781734301700)
    •ISBN (eBook = PDF): 978-1-7343017-1-7 (9781734301717)
    •ISBN (eBook = ePub): 978-1-7343017-5-5 (9781734301755)
    •ISBN (eBook = Mobi): 978-1-7343017-3-1 (9781734301731)

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJohn Brand
    Release dateNov 17, 2019
    ISBN9781734301755
    Things I Might Have Said
    Author

    John Brand

    John Brand is professor emeritus of English and an award-winning poet. Growing up in Sheffield (UK) surrounded by the prejudice of the time and with his strong northern Yorkshire accent, he was unable to attend University and instead completed an engineering apprenticeship. Turning back to college in his late 30s, he completed an English Literature and Linguistics (Hons) degree from the University of Sheffield. Moving to New England (Worcester Massachusetts) he furthered his education at the renowned Clark University and received his Master’s degree in 1996. Retired since 2017, he now spends his time reading, writing, and traveling with his wife.

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      Book preview

      Things I Might Have Said - John Brand

      TIMHS-eBook-Cover.png

      Copyright © 2019 - John Brand

      Foreword| Copyright © 2019 - Margaret Wong

      Praise| Copyright © 2019 - Kent Bridges & Mark Bates & Margaret Wong

      First published in 2019 in the USA

      AXOXA

      99 Wall Street #531# New York NY 10005

      ISBN (Print = PaperBack): 978-1-7343017-0-0 (9781734301700)

      ISBN (eBook = PDF): 978-1-7343017-1-7 (9781734301717)

      ISBN (eBook = ePub): 978-1-7343017-5-5 (9781734301755)

      ISBN (eBook = Mobi): 978-1-7343017-3-1 (9781734301731)

      www.johnbrand.online

      BOOK

      1st

      EDITION

      Contents

      Dedication

      Foreword

      Introduction

      A Short View of the Immutability and Propensity of an English Sage

      I Am Not

      Thursday Afternoon

      Fruit of My Loins

      Bowden Wood

      The Four of Us

      April

      Albert McGraw

      Block

      All Hallows’ Eve: For Electa

      The Kids on TV

      AnnaBelle

      The Sheffield City Council Charity Option

      The Terrorist

      You and Minnie and Me

      Evolution

      Questions

      The Magic Pen

      Refectory

      Trivial Pursuit

      Cellular One

      Clive Ponting

      Donkey

      Esprit D’escalier

      Fading Away

      The Poet’s Lament

      Failings

      Block II

      Government Warnings

      Haworth Moor

      Iambic

      Insobriety

      Internal

      Santa Claws

      Boxing Day

      Longford

      Maggie

      Meadow

      Naiveté

      Nostalgia

      Out of Sorts

      Paradox

      Reflections on Wilfred Owen (The Send Off)

      Resistant

      Rochdale Canal

      Schooling

      Sensitivity

      Shell

      Soldier

      Sonnet of Exposure

      Sonnet of Perspective

      Soviet Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire

      The Final Straw (from Consequences)

      The Flight Decked

      Rochdale Canal Revisited

      The Football Fan’s Prayer

      The Royal Wee

      Tunnel Vision: An Alternative Perspective

      Unemployment

      Angie

      Apocalypse When?

      Symphonic

      The Everest

      The Embrace

      Imagery

      Reflections on Lake Windermere

      Pariah

      Just My Luck

      The Triumph of Cynthia

      or The Light at the End of the Tussle

      About the Author

      For Kristina, without whom,

      none of my writing makes any sense.

      Foreword

      by Margaret Wong, PhD

      T

      his poetic volume

      by

      the irrepressible Professor Emeritus John Brand is a work of love and dedication. Each poem is a well-crafted gem, the rhythms and rhymes honed and polished, the turns of phrase masterfully rendered, the arguments cogent and solid. The messages conveyed — often mischievous and playful, sometimes cheeky and needling, bordering on insult, occasionally serious, even sweetly sentimental — tug at the readers’ emotions, provoke thought, and invite reflection.

      Take, for example, The Four of Us. The piece is short, only 16 lines of alternating iambic tetrameter and trimeter. It tells the story of one whose touch causes various body parts of creatures to fall off. First, it is a dog’s ear, then a cat’s tail, and finally a bird’s wing. On the surface, the poem is a joke with the punchline found in the final line directing the reader not to shake the narrator’s hand, lest, presumably, one of his body parts fall off. The meter used (the limerick meter, beloved by salty sailors and children alike) is suggestive of a bawdy ditty especially if considered in the context of Albert McGraw a poem about an 83-year-old and his young bride. Yet, because The Four of Us comes immediately after Bowden Wood a poem about the destruction of nature to serve the progress of Mankind, a more serious message emerges. The Four of Us illustrates the destructiveness of humanity’s interaction with nature’s creatures. The narrator’s touch causes the dog to lose its hearing, the cat to lose its balance, and the bird to lose its flight. Despite these life altering injuries, none responds with surprise or anger. Instead each creature in turn joins the narrator for a drink and a stroll in the park and then proceeds to wander the land with him, all now members of The Four of Us club, steadfast companions in the narrator’s journey through life.

      What The Four of Us captures and presents is the nature and essence of relating and relationship. We harm (transform) those we touch, but they don’t know it or they forgive us and in turn they become an inextricable part of us, making us feel incomplete without them in our lives. This is a theme returned to again and again in this volume. April expresses a litany of examples of incompleteness or loss of wholeness that result from how I am without you. Block II yearns for fate to bring me back to you. And Cellular One spells out the emptiness I feel within my soul / Not seeing you, not feeling really whole. These poems recognize that relationships are never merely casual. They affect us deeply, leaving us feeling bereft and lost when the relationship’s absence is inflicted on us.

      The poem in this collection that perhaps best comprehends this complex insight is

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