Joe Donald Johnson Books

Through more than two hundred poems, Joe Donald Johnson captures a wide variety of emotions, experiences, and energies. His topics, which stretch from a celebration of the majesty of the "rock-lake dance" to a look back at his own artistic evolution, show the connections between the natural world and the rich inner lives of the humans his poetry energizes and inspires. Some of the poems in If It Were contain Johnson's own musings on modernity, conflict, society, humanity, and life itself. Others provide intimate studies of characters in both Johnson's memories and his imagination. He writes of "Barkboy the Newser" and a woman who can't help but nod when talking on the phone. There's Lafwerk with the windmill name and the lethargic Lazarus Leppernatch. Argmont is three feet tall, and Half Hermit Judney "ghost-speaks" in St. Luke Park. Each new whimsical or tragic figure has something important to reveal about struggle, survival, and loss. As Johnson takes you back to Yosemite in the year 1851 or to contemporary Barcelona, he never forgets the human element of his work. As you laugh and cry along with Johnson and his characters, you'll discover something truly special about human nature.

Joe Donald Johnson is a poet, composer, and occasional artist. His poetry collection, Warp oems, is a small volume with war as its general subject. Most of these poems are unchanged from a 1974 edition of this work, written during the Vietnam conflict. That war produced a disturbing fissure in the American population. Johnson observed these struggles of ill will, of warlike and peacelike, in the society around him. The final 18 pages are new and show the dates of their creation. They are not focused on a particular conflict, but rather on conflict in various and ghastly aspects. Caring and hope crawl through portions of the entire work.