Poems by A. R. Johnson
Picture Album
Poems by A.R. Johnson
Is Now Available
Available in bookstores through Ingram Books and from Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com,
Wal-Mart.com, or through the publisher.
A collection of poems that range from elegiac to lighthearted and that evoke people and places across time and geography, Picture Album, published by Grayson Books, has won the praise of some of today’s most admired and acclaimed poets.
“A.R. Johnson brings many talents to the task of poetry—for him, I think, an almost sacred task requiring intimate knowledge of the natural world, flawless, unforgiving memories of the rural lives of past generations, and a poet’s word-hoard of figure and image that renders the past immediate and vivid. Such is what in ancient times confused poetry with magic, and so here it is again in Picture Album.”
— B.H. Fairchild, author of An Ordinary Life and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award
“The elegiac mood in A. R. Johnson’s Picture Album is pervasive but somehow affirmative; as the poet says, “we try on death/ every winter.” The description of a crow that is “solemn, in your suit of soot” makes us feel, in fact, less solemn. Joy in language also emerges in power-packed poems like “Gobsmacked” and the toast called “Cheers,” with rhymes such as “Barrymores/ paramours.” This poet who hears “the rain that once danced a tin roof tango” can only bring us pleasure.”
— Mary Jo Salter, author of Zoom Rooms and editor of The Best American Poetry 2024
“I just loved reading the poems in Picture Album, so clear, like photographs, so quietly musical, so full of natural images. When Johnson writes about ‘the proof of a rabbit’s ragged foot / In the freshly fallen snow’ in ‘Belief,’ I’m all in, deeply affected by his poetry of assent. Johnson isn’t afraid to address existential matters without flinching, and the honesty of these poems is evident on every page. This is marvelous work, to savor, to reread eagerly.”
— Jay Parini, author of New and Collected Poems, 1975-2015
“Here is a poet who, like those classics Horace and Li Po, tells time by the daily weather and the seasons, as they wheel over his place on earth. With a true poet’s humility, he claims to be looking for meanings he is not meant to find. But again and again, in poem after poem, he finds them. This collection, like an album of pictures evoked by its title, will be a pleasure to familiarize yourself with and return to again and again.”
— Mark Jarman, author of Zeno’s Eternity
“The “Picture Album” in this author’s delicious imagination is a gathering of images from the life of a family man who is acutely aware of the natural world around him and the family from which he springs. The book reflects on life’s surprises, shadows, and regrets, and one feels, insistently, a quiet undertone of yearning for the “peace/ of an ending.” The poems are formally adept and deceptively simple, but they resonate with power and wisdom garnered from a lifetime of observation, study, and reflection. You will enjoy the company of this author’s voice and intelligence as he leads you through the woods, farmlands, rivers, towns, and homes of this vividly constructed and deeply felt habitation.”
— Sidney Wade, author of Deep Gossip, New and Selected Poems