Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.
― Rumi
Tony Brewer is a poet and audio artist from Bloomington, Indiana. He is executive director of the Spoken Word Stage at the 4th Street Art Festival and co-producer of the Writers Guild Spoken Word Series. His books include Hot Type Cold Read, Pity for Sale, and Fragile Batteries. Tony has been offering Poetry On Demand at coffeehouses, museums, cemeteries, churches, bars, and art and music festivals for over a decade, and he is a frequent collaborator with experimental music & field recording ensemble ORTET.
Welcome to the Poets Weave, I'm Romayne Rubinas Dorsey. Tony, what poems have you brought for us today?
These are poems written “on demand” at various places and live events in Bloomington over the years.
Tea Party of Grief
It steeps in the belly
of the pot as it brews
& stews keeping you up
or knocking you out
depending on what leaves
Some sadness has a limit
who has a seat at table
Some leaves a whole life unstable
Unable to see a whole life
like a mask that cannot be
removed – only grown accustomed to
Soaking into the psyche
like rain seeps into skin
Surviving but wet with regret
or merely damp with memory
Dunked over & over in it
till the tea grows tepid
– is drunk & the guests
full go home but
you’re still here
left to clean up
(A Fair of the Arts
10 Aug 2021)
Maximum Dog
O you butt
to mutt of tongue
and sausage gut
wallowing on couches
and impossible to
make do anything
unridiculous or
properly doglike
more old man stink
than puff of pup
and only once
were you ever
told no because
it just doesn’t matter
now does it?
(1st Thursday @ IU Arts Plaza
7 Sep 2017)
Strong Female Character
Of course she can
clear any obstacle
Plasma rifle shoulder kick
only takes getting used to
Forces of nature
no storytelling trope
Merely accounted for
Not as many “versus”
as literature requires
But enmity and amity
states of capability
and vulnerability
coalesce in her frame
Hope unlooked-for
happens to survivors
Mislabeled objects
of directorial desire
(Christmas poem for Marie
19 Dec 2015)
Seeing Things
The tree said
eat this from my body
for it is knowledge
& it is good – OK
so take a picture
it'll last longer
a million years
a million billion in fact
Side eye of Jupiter
or the wound at the center
of every galaxy
We're just winking along here
in our tininess
with new & improved eyes
never meant to see
some things so clearly
bringing the mysterious
distance into sharp
relentless focus
(First Friday
2 Sep 2022)
What Would Thoreau Do?
These are days
the pond was
made for
the isolated mind
like a skipped stone
riding its own
echo then sinking
The safe space
of the forest
unencumbered
disinterested
The fertile earth
perfect and
unable to vote
Eternal outsider
inside us all
(4th Street Festival
3 Sep 2016)
Manual for Fixing
Step 1: put your whole self
into something else
you hope is real
Step 2: wait and think
about the rain
Step 3: Mom helps others
and has for a long time
Step 18: skip as many
steps as possible
Step 25: never ignore
the obvious sign
about yourself
that the helpless need
more than just you
more than good vibes
good times or wind chimes
Life is more than deep
sadness at the end of a list
More than mad fists
More than passion
More than a kiss
(The Project School
21 Apr 2023)
You've been listening to the poetry of Tony Brewer on the Poets Weave, I'm Romayne Rubinas Dorsey.
