Kathleen Johnson's SUBTERRANEAN RED Explores Cherokee/Anglo Heritage

Kathleen Johnson’s second book of poetry alternates between images and verse, between free verse and prose, between Tsalagi (Cherokee) and Anglo traditions. She writes: “Poetry is the language spoken here/ in Gaelic, in English, in Tsalagi” (“Waiting for Winter Dark”). As more and more Americans are born with mixed heritages, this book is a field guide to survival. Johnson finds ways to inspire. She remembers Tsalagi people who were persecuted and exiled: “…the flame carried / on the trail to Oklahoma / still burns” (“Waiting for Winter Dark”).
 The strong red-on-black cover design sets up a crackling dynamism. Portraits of grandparents accompanying text create short narratives that evoke heritage in personal terms. The slippage of memory makes storytelling incomplete, so lyrics prevail in this book. The poem “Ghost” teeters between the worlds of the living and the departed. This is also a moment between present and past. Winter imagery is the backdrop, with snowfall like “a gauzy shroud.” The narrator looks at “… the days before, / the days after”; she wonders, “Who can wake this world?” It is a moment set in a void, yet sound continues. Sotto voce growls of a bear are part of this surreal place, and “She hears only her own / wretched, beautiful, lusty wail.”  Even when identity is removed from the narrator, she still has her individual sound, like the poet herself.

GHOST

She has been drained of color

until invisible. Nobody
looks at her now.
She sees her life
behind her: a cold landscape
shot through with red.
There were the days before,
the days after.
Snow dusts the ground,
covers it like a gauzy shroud.
Who can wake this world?
A bear growls unheard
in the distance.
Ravens wheel in forbidding skies,
dark as her dreams.
She waits for a saving voice.
She hears only her own
wretched, beautiful, lusty wail.

 from Subterranean Red by Kathleen Johnson (Norman: Mongrel Empire Press, 2012, $14) http://www.amazon.com/Subterranean-Red-Kathleen-Johnson/dp/0983305277

Kathleen Johnson is the great-great granddaughter of Kansas frontier poet Orange Scott Cummins, best known in the Gyp Hills area as the Pilgrim Bard. Her collection of poems, Burn, published by Woodley Press in 2008, was selected as a Kansas Notable Book in 2009. Her poems have been published in the Concho River Review, Cottonwood, Cherokee Writers from the Flint Hills of Oklahoma: An Anthology (Indigitronic), Kansas City Star, Kansas City Voices, The Midwest Quarterly, The Louisville Review, Santa Fe Literary Review, West Branch, Westview, and others. She is the editor and publisher of the New Mexico Poetry Review. Johnson received her BFA in history of art and MFA in creative writing from the University of Kansas. As a freelance book critic specializing in poetry, she published over sixty book reviews in The Kansas City Star between 2002 and 2009. After dividing her time between Kansas and New Mexico for many years, she lives in Santa Fe.

AD ASTRA POETRY PROJECT # 44: KATHLEEN JOHNSON (1959 - )

KATHLEEN JOHNSON (1959 - )

Dear Poetry Affectionados,

Congratulations to Kathleen Johnson, who has won the only 2009 recognition for a poetry book. from the Kansas Center for the Book in its annual awards, Notable Book List. The Kansas Center for the Book, a state affiliate of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, features an annual list of 15 top Kansas books. It is a non-profit, tax-exempt program of the Kansas State Library. For more information, see http://www.kcfb.info/notable/

The KCFB said this about Johnson’s prize-winning book: “A book of poetry so hot it could only be named ‘Burn.’ Kansas poet Kathleen Johnson’s collection ranges from life on the frontier to memories at her parent’s home to tornados.” It is also a very literary book, with rich descriptions and wonderful use of language.

This Woodley Memorial Press (Washburn University) book is available at http://www.washburn.edu/reference/woodley-press/Reviews/burn.htm. It is also available through online book companies. Johnson is also featured in To the Stars, Poets of the Ad Astra Poetry Project ( http://http://www.mammothpublications.com/  ), the publication associated with this series on online poetry publications.

All best,

Denise Low, 2007-2009 Kansas Poet Laureate

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Kathleen Johnson has loved Kansas poetry for decades. This has led her to read widely, pursue an MFA, and also to write reviews of regional and national poets. She wrote insightful, thorough reviews for the Kansas City Star for fifteen years. Now she edits the New Mexico Review in her new home of Santa Fe. Another aspect of her poetic skill set is her background in visual arts, with art history as an undergraduate major.

One of my own delights in poetry is visual images, and Johnson describes colors especially well. In “End of August,” I enjoy the cat’s “sapphire eyes,” but the poet expands the image further to include “sharp points” and “all twilight.” These detail the eyes as faceted, like a jewel, and dark, dark blue, like the evening sky. Other words that evoke colors are moon, sunflower, yellow, bluebirds, goldfinches, and black-eyed susans. This is a good poem for students of poetry to read, because of the use of specifics—the plants are ragweed, candelaria, sunflowers, mulberry, and black-eyed Susans to emphasize season and well as sensual presence. This also illustrates how poets research specificity when writing. Good poets do as much fact checking as journalists. Exactly what birds, animals, and plants herald the end of summer. This is more than fine description and revival of a scene. The last line transforms details into a theme: survival.

End of August

Tonight, while the half-moon hides

its dark side,

the Siamese tom stretches

black velvet paws,

claws splayed toward a dream:

he hunts, sapphire eyes

focused to sharp points,

all twilight

concentrated in his gaze.

Stealthy as a shadow, he curves

Through a creek-bank jungle

Of giant ragweed, candelaria,

sunflower stalks.

Yellow mulberry leaves litter the lawn.

From low branches,

bluebirds dive for insects.

Goldfinches search for seeds

in black-eyed Susans.

Baby cottontails munch in tall grass.

Quick eyes everywhere.

Education: Kathleen Johnson graduated from Olathe High School and attended the University of Kansas for a BFA in Art History (1985) and an MFA in Creative Writing (2008).

Career: Johnson’s first book Burn (Woodley 2009) was a 2009 Kansas Notable Book. As a freelance book critic specializing in poetry, she published more than sixty book reviews in The Kansas City Star (2002-2009). Her New Mexico Poetry Review website is: http://newmexicopoetryreview.com/

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©2010 Denise Low AAPP 44 ©2010 “End of August” and photo by Kathleen Johnson

Lawrence Panel on National Book Critics Circle "Good Reads"

Posted on Crtical Mass, blog for National Book Critics Circle, Feb. 8

http://bookcriticscircle.blogspot.com/

Panelists and audience looked over the NBCC’s Good Reads Winter List and the 2007 NBCC Awards Finalists list, available as a handout, Feb. 10 as they dialogued about recommended books. They created their own list as they discussed the Kansas City-Lawrence book scene. The panel consisted of NBCC members John Mark Eberhart, Kathleen Johnson, and Denise Low, and independent bookstore owner Pat Kehde.The panel praised the NBCC lists for being driven by quality, noting that the best seller lists of the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and Chicago Tribune are all driven by profit. The panel noted that 291,000 books are published every year, so these lists really are helpful for helping to sort them. Eberhart, the books page editor of the Kansas City Star, liked the idea of recommended readings rather than books that should get awards. The panel agreed that many of the books on the finalist list were accomplished but less accessible to the general reader. Independent bookstore veteran Kehde, who recently sold her store The Raven to another independent owner, described the New York Times bestseller list process (The Raven is a participating store) and noted that the Lawrence store’s best sellers more closely align with the San Francisco Chronicle list than that of the New York Times. ... (Go to Critical Mass for full article)