Poetry
The Conditions We Live
ISBN-978-1-950730-01-8
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The Conditions We Live proves that life is messy and gorgeous. From poem to poem, Johnson builds a loose narrative of growing up in modern society, a landscape where we must navigate the gray areas of morality. Johnson hones in on a fractured world with the hopes of discovering solace.
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We piled ourselves,
five stones, three-part in the box.
We stood and watched, nothing happened
in the box before us, holding the last of a generation.
Transitions
ISBN-978-1-950730-78-0
When a young man finds himself in that awkward stage between middle and high school, a difficult time for anyone, he begins to understand what it means to find yourself in the modern world. Between navigating life both in school and online, his family begins to crumble around him, and everything he once relied on becomes everything he fears. As the struggles at home and school pile up, he begins to lose the few things he has left until he feels there is nothing left to lose.
When he thinks he’s lost everything, the only things left are self-destructive urges. When he finds his father’s pain pills, he thinks he finds a way out of his own pain. Instead, he discovers that when everything looks like the end, if you hold on just a little longer, you might just find a new beginning.
Transitions explores some very difficult topics such as bullying, teen and adult addiction, abusive relationships, and suicide. But it also explores the depths of love and support that surround us even when we think we’re alone, leading to the conclusion that even in the darkest moments of our lives there is a way back to the light.