The Kind of Brave You Wanted to Be : Prose Prayers and Cheerful Chants Against the Dark

Proems, Taut Tales, Small Stories With Rhythm And Blues And Grace And Bruise And Laughter Between The Lines. Brian Doyle's The Kind Of Brave You Wanted To Be Is A Book Of Cadenced Notes On The Swirl Of Miracle And The Holy Of Attentiveness; A Book About Children And Birds, Love And Grief And Everything Alive, Which Is To Say All Prayers. Brian Doyle's Uncategorizable Form Is The Brief Story Dressed Like A Poem But With The Loose Lyricism And Verve Of An Essay. Here Are Chants And Litanies, Like Gentle Songs To The Sacrament Of Every Moment-- Acknowledgments. -- That's The Kind Of Brave You Wanted To Be -- Astigmata -- Holy Thursday -- Your Theatrical Training -- Poem Celebrating The Tiny Metal Flag-holding Widget In The Shadows On The Stage Of The Lovely Old Wooden Lincoln Theater In Pastoral Mount Vernon, Washington -- The Requisite Darkness -- The Song Sparrow -- Goofing The Angel -- Poem For My Friend Louis -- Sweeney's -- Seamus -- At Marine Park By Flatbush Avenue, August 1974 -- A Chicago Story -- A Bride With Brass -- Poem On Our 28th Wedding Anniversary -- Summer Camp -- Flew -- Down By Fulton Fish Market. -- The Morning Bus On Halsted Street -- Lily -- Poem For Father's Day -- Poem For The Wooden Shutters And Little Mesh Grilles In Old Confessional Booths -- Rules For Being An Altar Boy At Saint John Vianney Parish For The Liturgical Year 1964 -- Such Delicious Absence -- Learning Owl -- Poem In Which I Am Sitting At The Sullivan Square Station On The Orange Line In Boston Staring At The Old Schrafft's Candy Factory, And Contemplating The Rubble And Smash Of An Affair With A Young Lady That Has Slumped From Bad To Worse To Epically Awful, And Realizing That Even As I Am Idly Pondering The Detritus Of This Terrible Affair I Am Much More Interested In The History Of The Old Candy Factory Than I Am In The Young Lady, Which Probably Explains, Very Well Indeed, Why The Affair Is Disastrous, As I Am Not In Love With Her At All In The Least, Which I Realize Just As The Train Arrives -- Warming Up -- The Tender Next Minute -- What People Gave Me One Evening In Rural Coastal Oregon After I Told Them Stories In A Lovely Tiny Library -- Poem For The Tall Man Who Interrupted Me Last Night During A Reading To Say That He Didn't Much Care For What I Was Reading And Could I Read My Better Stuff? -- Poem In Which My Wife Spoons Her Mother's Ashes From A Soulless Metal Box To The Beloved Old Blue Cookie Jar -- Once In A While We Should Say What Is -- In The Sacristy Just Before The Dawn Mass -- Pop -- The Usual Perfect Mask -- Poem For My Friend Lee -- Basketball Dads -- Poem For My Friend John Roscoe -- A Tenderness In The World. -- Ten Thousand Smiles -- Poem In Which Ray Davies And Dave Davies Huddle At The Top Of The Staircase At Their Home In Muswell Hill In London Listening To Their Aunts -- Tyee -- Poem For An Editor -- Near Otis, Oregon -- Spectacle -- Poem For A Guy I Knew In College Who Was Not Actually My Friend -- Here's What I Think When I Think About That -- Their Raptorish Privacy -- The Tree Surgeon Talks About Good Wood -- The Hurling Match -- Miraculum -- Just Now Right Now -- How To Dress For Your Wedding -- What We Think We Forget -- The Western Yellowjacket : A Note -- The Peach Pie -- The Things We Say When We Have Nothing To Say -- Poem In Which Four Men, After Hauling Flowers From A Church After A Funeral, Discuss Poetics -- The Most Arrogant Knife -- Poem For A Quiet Lady At Saint Patrick's Church In Oregon -- Poem For A Friend To Whom I Wrote Every Week -- Swagger -- The Best Rebounder I Ever Had -- Questions I Was Asked Today By Sixth-graders -- Yes -- Finally Is A Lot Futher Away Than Sick Ever Expected -- Poem In Which Dave Kingman Hits A Home Run That Is Amazingly Still Traveling 36 Years Later -- Skiffling Shuffling Skittering Scuffling -- Best Day Ever -- The First Layer Of Favorite -- Holy And Fearsome -- Owls Are The Bears Of The Sky -- Whatever It Is You Think You Are Chasing, You Just Ran Away From It -- A Shy Expedition -- Could There Be A Badger Jesus? -- The Antipodean Comma -- And Then There Is This -- Cards That Are Good For Scraping Ice Off Your Car -- Poem In Which A Love Letter Floats Over Western South Dakota -- Nailed By Wonder -- The Slight Light -- A Swirl Of Affectionate Air -- A Poem For Literature Teacher Beth Morgan Of Lassiter High In Georgia -- Poem For Dave Mcirvin -- How Can You Write A Poem If You Are An Essayist? -- After -- Seanchai -- The Tale You Did Not Know You Needed To Know. Brian Doyle.