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Author: JOHNSON, PETER
Matches Found: 133


Johnson, Peter    Poet's Biography
133 poems available by this author


19TH HOLE CONDOM POEM       
First Line: Failed poet completes '19th hole condom poem,' about a
Last Line: Will be arriving in the fall in search of the author %of thenow-famous '19th hole condom poem.'
Subject(s): Fame; Poetry And Poets; Sex


A MADE-FOR-TV ROMANCE    Poem Text    
First Line: After a year of spirited intercourse
Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships; Passion; Romance; Sex; Male-female Relations


A MINOR CHARACTER IN AN OBSCURE LEGEND       
First Line: Once he dated a ukrainian girl
Subject(s): Irony; Marriage; Prejudice; Ukraine; Weddings; Husbands; Wives; Bias; Intolerance


A RITUAL AS OLD AS TIME ITSELF    Poem Text    
First Line: There's a man flying his wife
Subject(s): Kites; Man-woman Relationships; Marriage; Unfaithfulness; Male-female Relations; Weddings; Husbands; Wives; Infidelity; Adultery; Inconstancy


ACCOMPLICE       
First Line: Suicide letters from strangers, stained pages stinking of fear. He
Last Line: Instruments they use. He needs to know what kind of service he's %offering, who employs him, why he'
Variant Title(s): The Accomplic


APPRENTICE       
First Line: I studied the lives of the great
Last Line: Could restore old women to their girlhood
Subject(s): Apprentices


ARTISTE MANQUEE       
First Line: Tatyana is unhappy
Last Line: Tatyana is lowered into the tank
Subject(s): Capital Punishment; Death


BARCELONA    Poem Text    
First Line: Moonlight softens the hardwood floor. A wind-blown, hundred-year-old
Last Line: They are beautiful
Subject(s): Barcelona, Spain


BARCELONA       
First Line: Moonlight softens the hardwood floor. A wind-blown, hundred-year-old
Last Line: Should tell their stories, someone should tell them they are beautiful
Subject(s): Barcelona, Spain


BEDTIME STORY    Poem Text    
First Line: When I was twelve, a horse appeared
Subject(s): Animals; Childhood Memories; Horses; Imagination; Fancy


BEDTIME STORY       
First Line: When I was twelve, a horse appeared
Last Line: Could her the clash of armor when I closed my eyes
Subject(s): Animals; Childhood Memories; Horses; Imagination


CAIRO    Poem Text    
First Line: Morning proclaimed by the cry of a
Last Line: Wet, disheveled companions mount a distant dune
Subject(s): Cairo, Egypt; Love


CONCERNING KINSHIP OF CAT AND BIRD    Poem Text    
First Line: The cat's on the windowsill
Subject(s): Animals; Birds; Cats


CONCERNING KINSHIP OF CAT AND BIRD       
First Line: The cat's on the windowsill
Last Line: Both protest and accusation as old as the elements
Subject(s): Animals; Birds; Cats


COSTA RICA    Poem Text    
First Line: Whatever gigi wants, gigi gets. This
Last Line: Sink her teeth into my neck
Subject(s): Love - Erotic


DEEP FOOTPRINTS OF GOD       
First Line: Are you ready for the smoke? Are you ready for the mirrors? I dreamt
Last Line: Me and say, 'soldier on, boy, soldier on'


DOLL       
First Line: Sits upright in an ancient chest
Last Line: A toothless angel who doesn't know better
Subject(s): Children; Dolls; Toys


DRAWING 101       
First Line: Asked about the meaning of his abstract
Last Line: Fucking, he says, just fucking
Subject(s): Drawing; Sex; Youth


EARLENE    Poem Text    
First Line: I want a woman named earlene
Subject(s): Machismo; Man-woman Relationships; Marriage; Male-female Relations; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


EARLENE       
First Line: I want a woman named earlene
Last Line: The way things are
Subject(s): Machismo; Man-woman Relationships; Marriage


EASTER, CIRCA 1960       
First Line: Such a clattering of black shoes. Mine are very tight and have pointed toes
Last Line: To my room. Lie down. Click my cuban heels
Subject(s): Loss; Moving And Movers; Refugees; U.s. - Immigration And Emigration


EINSTEIN'S BRAIN    Poem Text    
First Line: Because of the certitude of death
Subject(s): Einstein, Albert (1879-1955); Reason; Intellect; Rationalism; Brain; Mind; Intellectuals


EINSTEIN'S BRAIN       
First Line: Because of the certitude of death
Last Line: The results promise to be inconclusive
Subject(s): Einstein, Albert (1879-1955); Reason


ENIGMA OF THE STIGMA, OR VICE VERSA    Poem Text    
First Line: I'm drawn to the ineffable, yet cathedrals leave me empty
Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships; Religion; Spirituality; Male-female Relations; Theology


ENIGMA OF THE STIGMA, OR VICE VERSA       
First Line: I'm drawn to the ineffable, yet cathedrals leave me empty
Last Line: Mysteries inviting both penetration and erasure
Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships; Religion; Spirituality


EXTENDED FAMILY ROMANCE    Poem Text    
First Line: I was so fat my kids couldn't wrap their arms around
Subject(s): Family Life; Relatives


EXTENDED FAMILY ROMANCE       
First Line: I was so fat my kids couldn't wrap their arms around
Last Line: Alcoholic who'd stand half-naked at the window when grandfather shoveled
Subject(s): Family Life


FAMILY ROMANCE    Poem Text    
First Line: He inherits currency worth half its value
Subject(s): Pets


FAMILY ROMANCE       
First Line: He inherits currency worth half its value
Last Line: Maternal intervention made more alarming by its ambiguity
Subject(s): Pets


FAMOUS NEW ENGLAND LEGEND       
First Line: To the pious and penultimate
Last Line: And charming the tiny, painted hearts into bleeding
Subject(s): Devil; Evil; Suicide


FIESOLE       
First Line: Intrigues are exhausting, so are pets and professors, photographers and
Last Line: Bare-naked in her sky-blue running shoes. I swear it!


FIVE SURE WAYS TOWARD SELF-ACTUALIZATION       
First Line: 1) disclose your mantra to complete strangers at the
Last Line: These essays. Send them to your enemies on their birth- %days, wedding anniversaries, valentine's da
Subject(s): Jokes; Nonsense


FLAMENCO    Poem Text    
First Line: Leave her alone, dad said. She's learning something this time.
Last Line: Goes off like this, when I have to prepare myself for another rescue
Subject(s): Family Life; Singing & Singers; Relatives; Songs


GAMES       
First Line: My father orders me to run around a giant billiard
Last Line: Their tiny, funereal flags
Subject(s): Family Life; Fathers


GENESIS: A RETROSPECTIVE    Poem Text    
First Line: It began with division
Subject(s): Creation; God; Religion; Spirituality; Theology


GENESIS: A RETROSPECTIVE       
First Line: It began with division
Last Line: But there'd always be incarnations, innuendos
Subject(s): Creation; God; Religion; Spirituality


GENEVA    Poem Text    
First Line: Banished from one writer's colony
Last Line: Dumbest dreams can astound us
Subject(s): Geneva, Switzerland; Love


GENIUS       
First Line: Look out flaubert
Last Line: So very hard to pin down
Subject(s): Poetry And Poets; Wisdom


GUY TALK    Poem Text    
First Line: My son asks, what does it mean when you're
Subject(s): Machismo; Men; Reproductive System; Sex Organs; Genitalia


GUY TALK       
First Line: My son asks, what does it mean when you're
Last Line: If just for a moment
Subject(s): Machismo; Men; Reproductive System


HE SAID, SHE SAID    Poem Text    
First Line: Is it something I said
Subject(s): Language; Love; Man-woman Relationships; Words; Vocabulary; Male-female Relations


HE SAID, SHE SAID       
First Line: Is it something I said
Last Line: And what if it was a trick
Subject(s): Language; Love; Man-woman Relationships


HELL    Poem Text    
First Line: It's probably like the excitement of your first cigarette
Subject(s): Death; Future Life; Hell; Religion; Spirituality; Dead, The; Retribution; Eternity; After Life; Theology


HELL       
First Line: It's probably like the excitement of your first cigarette
Last Line: The least weird guy you know
Subject(s): Death; Future Life; Hell; Religion; Spirituality


HOOLIGAN ZOO       
First Line: Angry and depressed I take my son to the zoo
Last Line: He couldn't hear their yellow heads roaring
Subject(s): Parents; Zoos


I'M WITH STUPID    Poem Text    
First Line: There's a thumbprint of lamb's blood
Subject(s): Ignorance; Social Protest; Dullness; Stupdity


I'M WITH STUPID       
First Line: There's a thumbprint of lamb's blood
Last Line: Falling from the sky
Subject(s): Ignorance; Social Protest


IDIOT       
First Line: So what if he tears off a dog's head
Last Line: Twin with the weird eyes
Subject(s): Children; Insanity


ILLUD TEMPUS    Poem Text    
First Line: I loved her in another life
Subject(s): Life


ILLUD TEMPUS       
First Line: I loved her in another life
Last Line: Of a tulip and warned us of the future
Subject(s): Life


ISTANBUL       
First Line: It was all for many a rose-lipped maiden,' I explained to the bald cab
Last Line: But here, it's dry as hell, even a stamp's hard to come by


JOEY    Poem Text    
First Line: Joey seemed better until he started calling everyone
Last Line: Pretty good friend to joey
Subject(s): Murder


JOEY       
First Line: Joey seemed better until he started calling everyone
Last Line: Pretty good friend to joey
Subject(s): Murder


JUST LISTEN    Poem Text    
First Line: I sit by the window and watch a great mythological bird go down in flames
Last Line: Growl like the chorus in an undiscovered greek tragedy
Subject(s): Fear


KEY WEST       
First Line: When I feel sad, I thank god I don't have tiny lizards crawling under my
Last Line: The shivering of this airplane's unpredictable wing
Subject(s): Air Travel; Key West, Florida


LATE SHOW       
First Line: After rain, paint bubbled on a ceiling
Last Line: My thoughts are never unanswered
Subject(s): Night; Self; Sound


LIBRARIAN       
First Line: The somber librarian believes he's kafka
Last Line: Waxed, pointed, real severe-looking
Subject(s): Kafka, Franz (1883-1924); Librarians And Libraries


LOVER BOYS       
First Line: I saw the movie where indiana jones
Last Line: We couldn't even share the la-z-boy without fighting
Subject(s): Courtship; Fathers And Sons; Love Affairs; Women


MADE-FOR-TV ROMANCE       
First Line: After a year of spirited intercourse
Last Line: How lbullish she was on french kissing
Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships; Passion; Romance; Sex


MILLENNIUM       
First Line: In the basement
Last Line: At the turn of the century
Subject(s): Christmas; Family Life; Holidays; New Year


MINOR CHARACTER IN AN OBSCURE LEGEND       
First Line: Once he dated a ukrainian girl
Last Line: Big as a horse
Subject(s): Irony; Marriage; Prejudice; Ukraine


MOSES    Poem Text    
First Line: I believe in the god of the hebrews
Subject(s): Moses; Religion; Theology


MOSES       
First Line: I believe in the god of the hebrews
Last Line: Streetlights with each whack
Subject(s): Moses; Religion


NETTLES    Poem Text    
First Line: She was running in the field with the tall nettles
Subject(s): Fields; Fights; Pastures; Meadows; Leas


NETTLES       
First Line: She was running in the field with the tall nettles
Last Line: Even I wouldn't come upon it until years later
Subject(s): Fields; Fights


NEW COUNTRY       
First Line: I was with my grandfather when the boat landed
Last Line: A glimmer in his bloodshot eye
Subject(s): Grandparents; Immigrants; Past


NEW YORK    Poem Text    
First Line: Night, new york all gussied up. So
Last Line: "arms or legs,"" she says, ""even if he were a stump"
Subject(s): New York City; Love; Manhattan; New York, New York; The Big Apple


NIGHT CRAWLER       
First Line: The last automobile of night passes. I exit, drop to knees on a wet blan
Last Line: Suffer wet indignities of dirt for a handful of them
Subject(s): Insects; Night


OPEN HOUSE    Poem Text    
First Line: It's not easy to love oneself
Subject(s): Parents; Schools; Self-doubt; Parenthood; Students


OPEN HOUSE       
First Line: It's not easy to love oneself
Last Line: His bloody march across mexico
Subject(s): Parents; Schools; Self-doubt


PARIS    Poem Text    
First Line: A white poodle named gigi. A fingernail
Last Line: To whom shall I give it?
Subject(s): Paris, France; Dogs; Love


PENATES    Poem Text    
First Line: My father is omniscient
Subject(s): Fathers; Wisdom


PENATES       
First Line: My father is omniscient
Last Line: Behind her, father's sad eye blinks
Subject(s): Fathers; Wisdom


PESSIMIST       
First Line: The pessimist sits at his deak
Last Line: If only my pen doesn't run out of ink
Subject(s): Life; Pessimism


PIRATES    Poem Text     Recitation
First Line: I'm agitated when I read of pirates
Subject(s): Pirates; Youth; Piracy; Buccaneers


PIRATES       
First Line: I'm agitated when I read of pirates
Last Line: Insatiable they be, and everywhere
Subject(s): Pirates; Youth


POET LAUREATE    Poem Text    
First Line: They said they'd kill my son if I didn't go
Last Line: Wear instead of the customary cap and bells
Subject(s): Poetry & Poets


POET LAUREATE       
First Line: They said they'd kill my son if I didn't go
Last Line: Crown to wear instead of the customary cap and bells
Subject(s): Poetry And Poets


POST-MORTEM JACKET COVER       
First Line: At his funeral, as he hovers above
Last Line: Alive and barely kicking
Subject(s): Death; Funerals; Life


PRETTY HAPPY    Poem Text    
First Line: I have no siblings who've killed themselves
Subject(s): Happiness; Life; Joy; Delight


PRETTY HAPPY       
First Line: I have no siblings who've killed themselves
Last Line: For the baseball bat I keep hidden under our bed
Subject(s): Happiness; Life


PRIVATE CITIZEN       
First Line: He has this dream where he walks
Last Line: Him and his wife
Subject(s): Dreams; Presidents, United States


PROMETHEUS: THE TRUE STORY       
First Line: Mornming. The sun hardens
Last Line: He has no reason to sleep
Subject(s): Prometheus


PROVIDER       
First Line: Let's say he's at the company christmas party
Last Line: No place to call home
Subject(s): Fathers; Houses; Men; Paranoia; Professions; Worry


PROVINCETOWN    Poem Text    
First Line: We laughed about the pine tree laying
Last Line: Great loss, and that the liquor stores didn't close / until midnight
Subject(s): Providence, Rhode Island; Love


PROVINCETOWN       
First Line: We laughted about the pine tree laying its eggs, the blue fright wig I
Last Line: Great loss, and that the liquor stores didn't close until midnight


QUEST       
First Line: In the beginning, I was the termite on the tree
Last Line: With two fiery arrows from her little red bow
Subject(s): Fathers And Daughters; Fathers And Sons; Knowledge


READINGS FROM THE BOOK OF EDUARDO       
First Line: A lonely life that leads to such imaginings...We decide to change
Last Line: Raft, disappearing into the frozen darkness of my skull


RIO       
First Line: Scrimmaging with a fat-calved bossa novan,' is how it came to me in
Last Line: Bodies suggested the 'I's' had won the day
Subject(s): Rio De Janeiro


RITE OF PASSAGE       
First Line: After my friend tom passed a kidney stone
Last Line: We laughed, peed out the fire, and went home
Subject(s): Pain; Revenge; Sickness


RITUAL AS OLD AS TIME ITSELF       
First Line: There's a man flying his wife
Subject(s): Kites; Man-woman Relationships; Marriage; Unfaithfulness


SANDALS       
First Line: So hot today I wear my new sandals. It's been a tough morning at
Last Line: Patrolled by a burly security guard hired to keep us riffraff out


SCAVENGERS    Poem Text    
First Line: My birdfeeder, pagoda of weathered wood
Last Line: Slab of concrete, the hot, august sun just now on the rise
Subject(s): Birds


SCAVENGERS       
First Line: My birdfeeder, pagoda of weathered wood
Last Line: August sun just now on the rise
Subject(s): Birds


SCHOLAR       
First Line: There's an imaginary line between his living room and
Last Line: Wondering, just wondering, if it might miss a beat
Subject(s): Scholarship And Scholars


SCOTLAND    Poem Text    
First Line: We started out highbrow, riding the royal scotsman, curling through
Subject(s): Scotland


SCOTLAND       
First Line: We started out highbrow, riding the royal scotsman, curling through
Last Line: I say, as I approach the apparition, heroically adjusting my kilt, 'all this %commotion makes me ser
Subject(s): Scotland


SHADOWBOXING    Poem Text    
First Line: I'm telling my story to this couple who're over for dinner, they're friends, though not best friends
Last Line: It takes some getting used to
Subject(s): Gays & Lesbians; Marriage; Theater & Theaters; Motor Vehicle Bureaus; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men; Weddings; Husbands; Wives; Stage Life


SIBLING RIVALRY    Poem Text    
First Line: I have no older sister
Subject(s): Brothers & Sisters


SIBLING RIVALRY       
First Line: I have no older sister
Last Line: The one I can't remember
Subject(s): Brothers And Sisters


SOMEBODY'S FOOL       
First Line: He walks barefoot on thumbtacks
Last Line: On little fog feet
Subject(s): Poetry And Poets


SONNET       
First Line: Out of this world's imperial terror


STRANGE MEN       
First Line: She said, I am heaven, thou art earth
Last Line: Now climbing through her bedroom window
Subject(s): Man-woman Relationships; Men; Sex


TARANTULA       
First Line: I'm drinking coffee with an olive-skinned woman
Last Line: But the memory of the tarantula, its proximity, defeats me
Subject(s): Insects; Man-woman Relationships; Spiders


TATTOO    Poem Text    
First Line: There's a tattoo of a tiny gun on my hand symbolic of the tiny wars I
Last Line: My other hand until I fall asleep
Subject(s): Self-criticism; Tattoos


TATTOO       
First Line: There's a tattoo of a tiny gun on my hand symbolic of the tiny wars I
Last Line: Bed, where I stare at the tiny doorknob tattooed on my other hand %until I fall asleep
Subject(s): Self-criticism; Tattoos


TESTIMONY    Poem Text    
First Line: Today I learned 'gomez' meant ox urine
Subject(s): Family Life; Fathers; Relatives


TESTIMONY       
First Line: Today I learned 'gomez' meant ox urine
Last Line: Hardening at the mere thought of 'drink'
Subject(s): Family Life; Fathers


TEX-MEX    Poem Text    
First Line: Moonlight softens the hardwood
Last Line: Home with the wrong gigi
Subject(s): Identity


TEX-MEX       
First Line: Everything in this world passes, but love will last forever.' if this is
Last Line: Seems as cruel as hunger-the price to pay for going home with the %wrong gigi


THE ANGRY MAN    Poem Text    
First Line: Six o'clock and caleb pulls up, out of breath from his eight block trip
Last Line: Just driven it into the upper lever of the bleacher seats
Subject(s): Anger; Revenge


THE APPRENTICE    Poem Text    
First Line: I studied the lives of the great
Last Line: Could restore old women to their girlhood
Subject(s): Apprentices


THE HOOLIGAN ZOO    Poem Text    
First Line: Angry and depressed I take my son to the zoo
Subject(s): Parents; Zoos; Parenthood


THE LIBRARIAN    Poem Text    
First Line: The somber librarian believes he's kafka
Subject(s): Kafka, Franz (1883-1924); Librarians & Libraries; Library; Librarians


THE MILLENNIUM    Poem Text    
First Line: In the basement
Subject(s): Christmas; Family Life; Holidays; New Year; Nativity, The; Relatives


THE NEW COUNTRY    Poem Text    
First Line: I was with my grandfather when the boat landed
Last Line: Glimmer of a glimmer in his bloodshot eye
Subject(s): Grandparents; Immigrants; Past; Grandmothers; Grandfathers; Great Grandfathers; Great Grandmothers; Emigrant; Emigration; Immigration


THE QUEST    Poem Text    
First Line: In the beginning, I was the termite on the tree
Subject(s): Fathers & Daughters; Fathers & Sons; Knowledge


THE WATCHERS    Poem Text    
First Line: Grandmother's nose is white from the icy window
Last Line: Why we watch him
Subject(s): Marriage; Unfaithfulness; Weddings; Husbands; Wives; Infidelity; Adultery; Inconstancy


THE WORST OF TIMES    Poem Text    
First Line: Two men agree to swap wives
Subject(s): Domestic Relations; Love - Complaints; Marriage; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


THIRD PERSONS       
First Line: He shouldn't have been so accommodating
Last Line: For such an intrusion
Subject(s): Fights; Marriage


TIME TO FESS UP FOR NOW       
First Line: Time to fess up: eduardo has a shadowson, joined at his hip by a number
Last Line: Name-rarely spoken, unremembered


TOUCH    Poem Text    
First Line: Even when standing on a bus
Last Line: Love and abuse at the hands of many strangers
Subject(s): Touch (sense)


TOUCH       
First Line: Even when standing on a bus
Last Line: Love and abuse at the hands of many strangers
Subject(s): Touch (sense)


TRANSYLVANIA    Poem Text    
First Line: I'm singeing my toenails, tacking a pig's
Last Line: Pitchfork. I'll hemoflagellate him


UNIVERSAL MEDICINE    Poem Text    
First Line: A man discovered the universal medicine
Subject(s): Mankind; Medicine; Human Race; Drugs, Prescription


UNIVERSAL MEDICINE       
First Line: A man discovered the universal medicine
Last Line: Even more perfect galaxies
Subject(s): Mankind; Medicine


WAKE    Poem Text    
First Line: A casket that couldn't care less
Subject(s): Family Life; Funerals; Relatives; Burials


WAKE       
First Line: A casket that couldn't care less
Last Line: Heavy black doors opening and closing
Subject(s): Family Life; Funerals


WATCHERS       
First Line: Grandmother's nose is white from the icy window
Last Line: Why we watch him
Subject(s): Marriage; Unfaithfulness


WOMEN THEY COULD KILL FOR    Poem Text    
First Line: Two brothers laughing about it now
Last Line: Clawing on a beer-wet linoleum floor
Subject(s): Brothers; Fights; Jealousy; Women; Half-brothers


WOMEN THEY COULD KILL FOR       
First Line: Two brothers laughing about it now
Last Line: Clawing on a beer-wet linoleum floor
Subject(s): Brothers; Fights; Jealousy; Women


WORST OF TIMES       
First Line: Two men agree to swap wives
Last Line: These pains in the asses
Subject(s): Domestic Relations; Love - Complaints; Marriage


YOUNG WERTHER       
First Line: She was reading the concise history of knowledge
Last Line: He would have believed anything
Subject(s): History; Poetry And Poets