A Coldness

This is poetry that is in the world and of it, football players swinging at delicate heads with metal helmets, soccer fathers swinging hard, fighting through beltway gridlock, teleconferences, talking heads, strident division in the body politic, liberty misunderstood. This is America, falling asleep after a fine night out on Duval Street, Key West or Harry's Bar in Venice or Hotel Lutetia in Paris, and waking up in Charlottesville. Is there reason to mourn? Surely. "All ain't right with the world... we cross our own bridge of sighs, we tread our own trail of tears... nonetheless, we still dream." Through it all, we must believe, with Jerry Johnson, that Earth-and Humanity-will have its day.

-George Wallace, Writer in Residence, Walt Whitman Birthplace

"At a time when so many claim that contemporary poetry is dead / dying / seriously ill-or meant only for those in academia or love-struck teens-Johnson's work in this collection reminds us of the vibrancy and vitality of this art form. Whether his poems concern his work in the former U.S.S.R.-or our troubled times here in the U.S. of A.-Johnson returns us to the most ancient & contemporary traditions of poetry, namely, that of the story-teller who recounts a tale over a shared fire. Come warm your hands by this fire. You may be slightly singed, but you will not leave disappointed."

-Neil Silberblatt, author, Past Imperfect (Nixes Mate Books, 2018) 

(nominated for Mass. Book Award in Poetry).