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    AC Benus
  • AC Benus
  • Author
  • 09/06/2023
  • 263 Words
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  • 11 Comments
Poetry posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 

The Great Mirror of Same-Sex Love - Poetry - 104. ...where I also live...

.

“Where I also live” –

Two Adam Johnson Poems

for his belovèd, James Levondowski

 

 

Nocturne


October makes censers

Of these wooded places.

Out of the cool ether

Of darkness strike the

Branching crystals of trees,

By night's definition

Of a rarer substance –

The texture of bark

Is wholly light's privilege.

 

The path leads us to

A locked gate we climb. There is

Tension in our nearness –

The feel of you, our hands

Clasped in recognition

Of their own engaged warmth.

 

In embracing we earth,

Here, where a stream's course

Through banks of cypresses

Designs a garden,

The motion of its cool blade

As purposeful as blood.

 

Now the spell of your voice

Concedes to other sounds,

Falling into dark air

That cherishes each note –

This water easing

Over known rocks, through reeds,

The soft consent of leaves.

Drawing me close, there is

Nothing you would not give. [i]

 

 

 

Poem

 

I am also this water

and this rock,

And these furled leaves, that twist out

and become my hands.

I am the root of the first tree,

and a new forest:

The soil runs in my veins, seeking

its own river.

Walking through rain I can touch you,

for you wet my skin,

And we fall into step as you cross a street

in another city,

Or turn at the door of your own house,

where I also live.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[i] “Nocturne” Adam Johnson. The manuscript of this poem reads “December 1986”

_

as noted
  • Love 4
Poetry posted in this category are works of fiction. Names, places, characters, events, and incidents are created by the authors' imaginations or are used fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual persons (living or dead), organizations, companies, events, or locales are entirely coincidental.
Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you. 
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AC Benus
On 9/6/2023 at 5:32 PM, Parker Owens said:

These are utterly captivating, sensual poems. The soft consent of leaves made me stop and reflect; I am the root of the first tree echoes still. What amazing poetry you share. 

"October makes censers / Of these wooded places" -- for this line alone, Adam Johnson should be in every book of "how-to" on poetry writing. The ages of poets before him, just like we after him, sigh in the breath of his poetic majesty. 

So why is he not well-known? Anti-gay sentiment? Perhaps -- it's about the only theory that can properly explain why the work of this tragically died-young poet is ignored

Edited by AC Benus
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AC Benus
On 9/6/2023 at 8:19 PM, ReaderPaul said:

I love the reference to cypresses and the description of trees and tree-related imagery.  Wonderful.

Thank you, ReaderPaul. I was blown away when I randomly came upon a few of Adam Johnson's poems. Appearing in a 1990s Gay anthology, I literally put the book down and went to my computer to order all of his work. Sadly, that only amounted to a pair of slender volumes. He died at age 27.

His friend and editor and literary executor wrote about preparing a complete poetry edition of Johnson's work, for besides the two volumes, Adam ran a literary broadside in 1980s where he published most of his work. Needless to say, these are almost unobtainable these days, although their content must be poetic gold, like all of Johnson's work. 

There is still no sign that Johnson's Complete Poems in is the works :(  

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AC Benus
On 9/6/2023 at 8:19 PM, ReaderPaul said:

I love the reference to cypresses and the description of trees and tree-related imagery.  Wonderful.

Thank you, ReaderPaul, and you know, Johnson's imagery -- plus his marriage of personal love-feelings with nature settings -- puts him in close harmony with Wilhelm Runge. I know you are reading the Runge translations I am posting, so images here, like the marvelous cypress reference you mention, remind me strongly of the German poet's vocabulary.

Both poets are surely worthy of readings, and praising for their accomplishments

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