John Maxwell O’Brien – Poems Ha’penny Each

Profile Maxwell LEP&W June 2021

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Live Encounters Poetry & Writing June 2021.

John Maxwell O’Brien is an emeritus professor of history (Queens College, CUNY) who has written scores of articles on the ancient and medieval worlds. His best-selling scholarly biography, Alexander the Great: The Invisible Enemy (Routledge), has been translated into Greek and Italian, and is currently being translated into Arabic. His celebrated novel, Aloysius the Great (Propertius Press), features a history professor who is writing a biography of the Macedonian conqueror. Professor O’Brien and his daughter Christine O’Brien are currently collaborating on an illustrated lyrical biography of Alexander the Great.


Harbingers of Spring

The green fuse…pulsates
A red-winged blackbird flutters
Patient…spring…awaits

Identity

Probing…to…find..me
Masks…until…I…found…myself
Now…I’m whole…and…free

Writing

Loosen…let words flow
Like crimson leaves …when autumn
Winds…do…howl…and,,,blow

Books

Scribble…you…and…me
Desperate thrusts…we…make…at
Immortality

Shadows Numberless

We come…and…go
Vestiges at first…then…just
One…in…a…long…row

Photograph by Alex Kearney
Photograph by Alex Kearney, Montana, USA.

© John Maxwell O’Brien