Comorbidity: Expressions of Love

by J.J. Brown

Earthy and organic, poems in Expressions of love explore the origins of love. Childbirth and childhood, family experiences and ghost stories mingle to influence love experiences later in life. Love's arc throughout a lifetime is chronicled in six sections on Mother's Love, Women's Voices, Ghostly Love, Comorbid Love, Family Ties, and Meetings.

Genres: Poetry

43 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 27, 2018

About the author

Jennifer J. Brown is an independent author, scientist and publisher with a passion for nature and family. Publications include science communications, health news, narrative nonfiction, and fiction including novels, short stories and poems as J.J.Brown. Genres include memoir, literary and contemporary noir fiction and suspense. When the Baby Is Not OK: Hopes & Genes, is her newest book publishing in February, 2025.

An incorrigible storyteller originally from the Catskill Mountain region of New York, Brown continued creative writing during a career as a molecular biologist, science writer and director, editor and public health advocate in Philadelphia, Miami and NYC.

Brown completed a PhD in Genetics from her research with Nobel Prize winner Barbara McClintock at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and her genetics, medical education, and public health studies are published in leading scientific journals.

When not writing, Brown enjoys time with her daughters and her companion house rabbits, Belinda and Maxi in New York City.

Discover inspirations behind Brown's work at her blog https://jjbrownauthor.com/ and author page.

Reviews

[Pamela · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoy J.J. Brown's writing because it's complex yet readable, and I always learn something new. My eyes/mind are opened to new/different senses and possibilities when I read Brown's work. In her free verse poems of Cormobidity, I discover a thrill in this poetry that sometimes I don't understand, but that always I FEEL. I'm glad I read this small book of poems before looking up the word "Comorbidity." But life is a disease, a process, of several things converging to make a feeling/loving human being. This is expressed beautifully and complexly in Brown's poetry.

[Finley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a free digital copy of this book through a giveaway hosted on GoodReads.

Comorbidity: Expressions of Love is a lovely collection of stories, covering the various types of love one experiences throughout life. Starting with a poetic description of birth, and the way mother and child are still joined in their hearts, even when birth separates their bodies, Brown writes about the varieties of love that are found throughout life, the pain that often accompanies love, and the way that, even when someone you love hurts you, losing them is often painful as well, though in different ways. Whether drawing from personal experience or building a story around a fictional narrator, the poems, while beautiful together, come together in order to tell of a young girl, one of a set of twins, who grew up with a mother who did not want to have children. Her mother grew up a rebellious teen in an abusive home, with a mother who did not want children either and a pastor father who severely limited her freedom and beat her when she did no obey. Despite this troubled past, the family still meets for dinner on Sundays, telling the more pleasant stories of the family’s past, though the deeper problems still find their way through. As she gets older, she loses her mother, as well as experiencing romantic love, lust, and motherhood, bringing life full circle, while she continues to reflect upon the relationships she had with family and lovers.

Brown’s style is beautiful and expressive, filled with happiness and pain in equal parts. While reading, you will feel for the narrator of the poem, as if you are standing beside her as she experiences the joy and pains of learning to how to love and be loved. She is a wonderful poet, and I thoroughly enjoyed this collection, though I felt sad for the young girl and woman whose life the poems described. I chose to read in the car, and had to be torn away my tablet when we reached our destination. It is a short and beautiful collection of poems, and I would happily reread it beginning to end repeatedly without losing any of my enjoyment.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book of free verse.

What language should a writer, poet use? Must it be careful crafted built of only common words, or uncommon but still common words that are not specialized, sciencey unless it is a science book? Are love, birth, death, man, woman, family, infinity fungible? Do our childhood memories make life a continuum or is it many, many, many small vignettes that make the memories for later. Can you even separate the memory from the now happening because they are all that different?

What makes us who we are? Is it the good, the bad, or the ugly that shall not be named? Do we regret what we are or that somebody, some progenitor did something, told us they thought something, should have done something other so we would be someone other? Do we regret our memories?

If the poet writes and the reader reads something else is the poet a poet? Do the words continue when death and dust ensue? Is there is circle of life or is it a line from DNA to death?

Yes, free verse. Life is like that, however unsettling to undisturbed memory that may be.

[Rob Reynolds · Rating 5 out of 5]

These poems express a child's love of her mother, love of grandparents, love of lovers, and love of the ghostly memories of past loves. My favorites are in the section titled Family Ties. In the first, the poet announces, "I know where I come from / a short line of strong women / who didn't want to be mothers." We see her as a child expressing glee when her grandparents visit, undeterred by her mother's chiding her for calling her grandfather "poppy." She wraps her arms around her grandmother who chides her for calling her "mamaw," and insists on being called only by her initials, T. P. The girl laughs, hearing the Native American word "tipi." In a later poem, we see specific details of the grandmother who "took flowers from the forest / or the neighbor's yard, dirt and roots and all / and adopted strays like all the world was hers." Her daughter, the poet's mother, scolds her. "You can't be taking other people's things." "Ownership is a myth," she replies. The poet concludes, "No one owned her." By the end, the reader sees that the poet grew to be a strong, independent woman herself.

[Alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful short book of free verse poetry. This author went deep with her wording and really opened up about herself and her personal life all in the form of poetry with her loved ones and others in her life. I am not one to fully understand poetry so if my review sounds basic that is because it is. But reading this I really enjoyed from what I did get out of this work. I really liked this and I think this author is very talented with her writing and her wording is very well too. I like this and would definitely want to read more of her work. My first time reading this author! Very good work!

[Sharon Buchbinder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just when I thought J.J. Brown had exhausted her range of works in words, she surprises me. This edgy, often heart-breaking collection of poems left me at times exhilarated, devastated, crushed, and redeemed. A full circle of life story told in poetry, we begin with birth, end with death and experience life in all its beauty and ugliness in between. I highlighted so many portions, I should have just highlighted the entire book. I don't want the reader to lose the impact of her timing and words, so I won't quote any of her poetry here. You will have to read it yourself to have the breathless feeling I experienced at the end of the book. Five stars, highly recommend.

[Progress Wings · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is perfect for anyone who loves deep and meaningful poetry

“Comorbidities” by J.J. Brown is a powerful book that really captures feelings and relationships.

The poem “Ghostly Love” is especially moving. It talks about old loves and the deep feelings we still carry for them. Brown’s words paint clear pictures and make you feel strong emotions.

This book is perfect for anyone who loves deep and meaningful poetry. It’s a great read that sticks with you.

[Holly L'Heureux · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway. This book was a solid 3.5 stars for me. The wording was dark and foreboding which worked well with the free verse style that was used. Some parts of the poems seemed that they could have been stand alone and that they were on a whole different subject altogether. The author does have a way with words however and I read it all the way through without stopping.

[Crystal · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was the first time I have read something like this. It was not bad, I just wasn't a fan. The lack of capitalization really bothered me.