My 36th Birthday

I’m 36 today and beyond grateful.

My 35th year was the beginning of a significant shift in my life physically, mentally, and spiritually. I’m committed to the work of aligning myself with my highest good.

My third book is coming this Spring, and I’m excited to share it with you all. Already I can sense things beginning to bubble up in my mind, what’s likely to be the beginning of book 4, but that’s for another day.

I’m surrounded by so much love, and my wonder remains intact and sparking; no man luckier than I.


Their Eyes Beyond – A Poem by Brandon White

Photo by Brandon White
Their Eyes Beyond

I drive myself crazy
imagining ways
to pierce the veil

How the mind might
be used to fold and tear
the fabric of perception

that one might peek through
to the world beyond
the wool

Consider our limitations,
how few colors and frequencies
the mind can endure

Dare we open our arms
to what we can
only hope to comprehend?

To that which is,
has been,
and will be?

Before you, before I,
known before
we knew

Before the first pair of eyes
set skyward,
before a mind wondered;

What waits for us there?
Or, perhaps more
importantly,

who?


-Brandon White

The Musings of a Future Yelper – A Poem by Brandon White

I hadn’t thought about this free verse poem in a while. Before the pandemic, one of my favorite places to write was a restaurant booth or in a coffeehouse somewhere- surrounded by lives being lived and the hustle of the day. The electric air thick with poetry.

Please, come back.


The Musings of a Future Yelper:

They’ve never been able to
maintain a restaurant at this location,
and many have tried.

It’s not a bad spot, either.
Downtown, right on the avenue,
the best bars within walking distance.

I’ve sampled every establishment
that attempts to put roots down here.
They’ve all been decent enough.

For whatever reason,
the people won’t come.
Sushi, Burgers, Piano Bar, it makes no difference.

I’ve sampled cuisine
from four different countries
and sat in the same shitty booth each time.

Outside, the rain falls steadily.
It’ll be this way for the next several days, and I’m sad
my daughter might not get her last train ride of the season.

Three men enter the restaurant
and sit directly
in my line of sight.

Above me, a TV plays sports highlights
and when they watch, it feels like
they’re staring.

Maybe they are?
I’ve reached that elusive point in life
where it makes no difference.

The burger and fries
are too salty—
what a shame.

My waitress asks how everything tastes,
and I lie to make her feel better.
She smiles her crooked smile and fixes her peroxide-blonde hair.

I ask for my ticket
and she’s out of sight again.
I begin to review my latest poem.

I’m writing about food a lot lately.
I’ll be yelping before
you know it.

Outside, the rain pours on,
gathering into puddles
and flowing down the drain.

Like all the wasted minutes
in a life.


-Brandon White

The above poem, “The Musings of a Future Yelper, ” appears in my debut poetry collection, The Year that Stole the Light Away (Raw Earth Ink). Click the cover to purchase a copy!

Sunrise – A Poem by Brandon White

A short, free verse poem that arrived this morning.


Sunrise:

In a perfect world,
we would regard every
firey morning sky as miraculous,

and every promise made
would be holy


-Brandon White