Patches of Snow

By Rick Bramhall

This is a collection of the poetry I have written between 2013 and 2017. It contains all of the pieces in my e-book chapbook, "Fumblings in the Dark" and much more. There are over 100 pieces in this work. If you like light, breezy poetry or poems that will lift your soul, then this collection of poetry is not for you. In a few places it is humorous, in more than a few it is flippant. But mainly it is dark, exploring ideas that will challenge most and that may frighten those who are not sure in their beliefs. I explore not only my chronic depression but my atheism. My interest in subatomic particles inform many of my poems, but not in an obvious way. I believe that these particles are the closest things in existence to supernatural beings. My hope is that these are what we become when we die and that we lose all sense of individualilty and lose ourselves in a common, universal unity. I hope for and long for this loss of self, this giving in to a greater, common force. But in other places you will find me longing for nothingness. This work displays my human foibles, inconsistencies and weaknesses. I hope you find it entertaining and amusing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rick Bramhall
• Release date: May 2, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463195666

Rick Bramhall

I was born in 1952 and grew up Hawthorne, California. Served in the US Air Force from 1975-79. My longest gig was working in Medical Information at the Loma Linda VA from 1979-89. Got my BA from Cal State San Bernardino in 1989. Taught 8th Grade Language Arts 1990-94. Volunteered at the Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve from about 1997-2004. I moved to San Diego in 2009 to be nearer family. In 2019 I moved to Yuma AZ, as rent became too high in SD. In 2021, my place in Yuma burned down and I moved to Tucson to be nearer my childhood friend, Carl Harrison. I'm currently involved as a community activist.

Book preview

Patches of Snow

poems by Rick Bramhall

copyright 2018

some poems were previously published in Fumblings, copyright 2015*

some poems were previously published in The Kitchen Sink, copyright 2017**

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Table of Contents

My Job

My Head

Ode to an Eulogy

Looking Forward Over My Shoulder

Legacy

I Get Pleas

From My Lack of a Vantage Point

Dream on My Pillow Soft

This May Not Be Important

Ode to My Pain Medication

Innocence**

I Am a Quark*

Cut! Print!

Prayer**

The Specialist*

A Day in an Ordinary Life

Searching for the Lost Art of Rage*

Your Eye*

An Earlier Springtime

Beyond Time

Thundering Hoofs of Time*

Why I Walk

An Incomplete Lack

A Cry Into the Void

Before I Was Introduced to Myself

Echo Park

I Mean, Really

Don't Speak to Me of Revolution

Excuses**

Black Sheep**

Song for the Tone-Deaf

I Have No**

He's Finally Gone Around the Bend**

My Garden

Coping

A Lack of Breath*

Absurd*

Dead Branches

Halfway There

Morning Broke

Buffoon Seeing Himself As a Clown

Softly Weaves the Night*

Killing Time*

Landscape

A Simple Calendar of Yesterday's Hopes and Disappointments*

From the Joint Between Sleep and Death*

I Wander*

If Wishes*

Nothing More*

It's Probably Just Gas

One Point of View

When All Is Said and Done*

Life As a Hobby

I'm Trying to Explain

Promise

The Key*

Where Was I?*

Thanks for the Nothing

What of It

You Would Think*

One in a Series of Nights

The Wait

A Theory of Dreaming

By Nature*

Another Loss*

Death Is a Beautiful Woman*

Mistaken Words

I Hope This Isn't Published*

Regarding My Nature, Doctor

Silvered Surface

Wet Christmas

I'm Sorry

Life As a Metaphor for Something Else

Prey

Why Should I

The Carcasses of Insects

A Colorless Commentary on Differences within the Null Set

Fingershadows

I Could Have Told You

No Light to See

Q&A

Sideways

Rendered Useless, Thank Goodness

The Thought on the Roof of My Mouth

Once Upon a Christmas Dreary

Ambiguities

Found

Halfway There

Horse Mouth

Hot Dang

I Hear a Relief

Judgment

Missing in Inaction

A Sense of None, A Circle Won

Outside of Time

Somewhere Between Sleep and Poetry

Song of Neither Joy nor Hate

A Summer Afternoon Shiftless

My Own Particular Superstition

Final Word

Just a Dream, Not a Reflection

Key West

Enter Santa

Improper

Some Idea

Other Books by the Author

About the Author

My Job

My job is not to entertain you

It is to destroy you

To make you question

Everything

To denounce you to your mind

My job is to take this crazy

godforsaken language

and twist and abuse it

Use it

To numbify your senses

Your sense of right and wrong

I don't see myself of any value

I don't value the concept of value

I spit in the wake

of ships passing in the night

I have no role

No right

No sense of presence

Little do I care

What you think of me or mine

For I have nothing

Want nothing

Am nothing

And I revel in it

You cannot interfere in my job

Any more than you can stop my thoughts

When I die I will no longer be a problem.

My Head

My head is so heavy

my weak neck has trouble holding it.

I wish I could carry it under my arm

or better yet

kick it ahead of me

My heart was so heavy

I left it somewhere

I'm not sure where

Since it was my heart that cared

it no longer matters where it is

I