Borderlands and Dreams

A collection of mostly narrative poems exploring the power of memory and dreams in our experiences as contemporary Americans. The length is 134 pages. This book is divided into 5 sections plus a Coda: the first concerns itself with memories; the second regards ideas and observations; the third is about relationships; the forth describes the poet's experiences working in a homeless shelter, then child protective services, and adult protective services; the fifth contains poems of the writer's interaction with nature; the Coda contains one concluding poem. Of this collection, poet Raymond Philip Asaph wrote: "A poet of simple pleasures, corn muffins, hikes in the woods, listening deeply to music, be it classical or Pink Floyd, Johnson displays a seemingly innate capacity to consider the most complex or mundane subjects, sometimes with equal measure." And former Suffolk County, NY Poet Laureate George Wallace wrote: "There is something of Yeats in the poetry of Bruce Johnson, a straightforward man committed to a fundamental annunciation of authenticity, in the fraught moments of existence. This is a voice that resonates sharp as a hammer's blow outdoors in cool November. Johnson's concerns are keen and sober-matters of family loyalties, of shelter dwellers who have fallen away from America, of seekers of the primitive wilderness, trekking long trails in search of the 'fierce beauty of storm clouds through treetops.' Seekers who yet understand that there are conditions when 'to remain on the mountain, shelterless in the wind, is unthinkable, ' and who would willingly trade the carnal for a moment's peace. It is an uneasy peace, to be sure, disturbed by stampeding Black Friday shoppers, by victims of an overmedicated and overindulged consumer society. Despite the odds, Bruce Johnson stays true to his vision."