Jamie Brown

Nothing More

And the rain that falls out of the gray sky
is just rain and the gray day is just clouds
and the leaves that drift from the trees in fall
are just responding to the shorter days
and the questions we ask are always “Why?”
and our different circles of friends just crowds
as we blindly grope for doors in the wall
denying our paths go in separate ways.
And there is nothing special in the past,
and nothing unusual in the bird
singing a new song outside in the rain –
not just how do we make the changes last,
but how are we changed by the song we heard
on a gray day enveloped by our pain.

Jamie Brown is the author of several award-winning chapbooks, and a full-length collection of poetry. He has been an electrician, handyman, roofer, plumber, short-order cook, a food-prep specialist in a large government cafeteria kitchen, a boat ramp operator, and assistant manager of a bowling alley. He was later a homemaker and stay-at-home parent to two young children, When his children were in school all day, he found employment as a dispute resolution specialist and, later, Public Affairs Officer for the Better Business Bureau of Metropolitan Washington. While working full-time for the BBB he was accepted into and, carrying a full academic load of classes, completed American University’s 48 credit hour MFA Program, working in poetry with Henry Taylor, Linda Pastan, and Myra Sklarew, among others. He subsequently taught at George Washington University for over a dozen years and taught the first-ever creative writing workshop at the Smithsonian Institution, a ten-week practicum in poetic forms. He is a member of PEN, the Academy of American Poets, the Eastern Shore Writer’s Association (ESWA), and other arts organizations. A Vietnam Era Veteran (1970-1972), he served as a Military Policeman in Anchorage, Alaska.