Adam Johnson Collected Poems

by Johnson, Adam; Powell, Neil

• ISBN13: 9781857546378
• ISBN10: 1857546377
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-06-01
• Publisher: Carcanet Press Ltd.

Summary

"When Adam Johnson, a young gay man from Cheshire, arrived in London in 1984, he possessed insatiable curiosity, irresistible charm, and unfocused literary ambition; when he died nine years later, he had become one of the most accomplished English poets of his generation. This collection of his poems charts that astonishing transformation. It is compelling as a record of a few short years of serious writing. JohnsonÆs poetic imagination, shaped by his close observation of the natural world, proved no less adept at dealing with the ironies and tragedies of urban life. A love of music, painting, and literatureùof cultural life in all its formsùis matched by a delight in human relationships. Many of his poems are dedicated to lovers and friends, across the dinner table or at journeyÆs end. His celebratory relish for lived experience remains undiminished even in his last poems. This edition is prepared largely from the authorÆs signed typescripts and includes previously unpublished work."

Table of Contents

After Hours	p. 1
I of Glass	p. 2
Viewers' Guide to the Office	p. 3
To a Raven	p. 4
Curious Place	p. 5
Posy	p. 6
Under Ground	p. 7
Dead Leaves, Dead Year	p. 8
It is What we Wanted, Isn't It?	p. 9
Leather Guise	p. 10
Sea Chant	p. 11
Forsythia	p. 12
Moonchild	p. 13
Symphonia	p. 13
26 June 1986	p. 14
A Haven of Listening	p. 15
Egg	p. 15
Evening Meal	p. 16
Dancers	p. 17
Bluebottle	p. 17
The Book of Lies	p. 18
Nocturne	p. 19
Lines on a Postcard	p. 21
Rain	p. 21
Discovery	p. 22
Making	p. 22
The Fire	p. 25
Inside	p. 26
Sunflower Harvest	p. 27
The Night Ferry	p. 28
The Bunker	p. 29
Carol	p. 30
Waiting for When you Wake	p. 31
Yes	p. 31
Road to Arisaig	p. 32
For your Birthday	p. 32
Villanelle	p. 33
December 1989	p. 34
The Artifact	p. 35
Sunbather	p. 35
Birthday Song for the Twenty-Sixth of May	p. 36
Silence	p. 36
The Spiral Staircase	p. 37
The Gift	p. 39
View from the Monument	p. 40
A Toast	p. 41
Fear	p. 41
Poem for the Nineteenth of October	p. 42
For Graham Storey	p. 42
Table Manners	p. 43
December 1990	p. 43
The Joke	p. 45
Poem	p. 46
Airborne	p. 46
Spring Poem	p. 47
The View	p. 48
Hawthorn	p. 48
The Break	p. 49
Ardeche, August 1991	p. 51
Station Buffet, Ipswich	p. 51
Safe Sex	p. 52
End of Season	p. 52
The Dancing Partner	p. 53
The Colour of Trees	p. 54
Invocation at Solstice	p. 54
Brumal	p. 55
High Force	p. 56
A Valentine	p. 56
Vertigo	p. 57
S.W. 5	p. 57
The Departure Lounge	p. 58
The Reunion	p. 58
Heavy my Gold-ball Baby	p. 59
April Shower	p. 60
To the Wild Cherry Trees	p. 61
Scene in May	p. 61
The Return	p. 62
Unscheduled Stop	p. 62
The Bed	p. 63
For Parvin and Michael Laurence	p. 64
At the Lake	p. 65
The Scaffolders	p. 65
All Day the Rain	p. 66
Green Fingers	p. 66
September Journey	p. 67
The Turning Circus	p. 68
Early November	p. 69
Sleep, Spirit, in your Branching Bed	p. 69
The Field	p. 70
The Playground Bell	p. 71
Hammersmith, Excuse Me	p. 73
Edvard Munch	p. 74
In the Garden	p. 75
Island Visit	p. 78
Going North	p. 79
Poem on St. Patrick's Day	p. 80
Afterword	p. 83
Index of First Lines	p. 89
Index of Titles	p. 92
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.