RONALD JOHNSON AGAIN ~

 

Wild Apples

                                                        with 'bow-arrow tang'

cows or birds or Johnny Appleseed

planted

New England westward

Whole orchards, boughs knotted

with fruits of coral & gold — to be eaten, Thoreau believed,

in the wind.              

                    Whose 'bloom' rubs off in pockets

like wild horses

broken in, harnessed

to plow.

                    Neither orchards of the east, in lichened

                    walls, or west

                    hedged in eucalyptus—

bounded only by slopes of oak

& of maple,

the woods-apple comes sweet from the hills, both spring

nights & autumn

a wildflower sharpness, an earthy

cider

                    Domestics

                    shape

                    for hand,

                    & tint

                    of 'apple

                    color'

                            —but wild may brindle

                    as a cow,

                    may rust like

                    rock

____________________________

Valley of the

Many-Colored Grasses

The Song Cave, 2023

                    

CROOKED FINGERS TONIGHT ~

 

℗ 2026 Merge Records Released on: 2026-02-27 Main Artist: Crooked Fingers Producer: Eric Bachmann Composer Lyricist: Eric Bachmann

THE REVOLUTIONISTS ~

 

R E A D  &  L I S T E N

     Knopf 2026

THE EMERSON CIRCLE ~

 

R E A D   M E

    For an updated biography of the

   Concord radicals, this is

the one

RALPH STEADMAN ~

 

R E A D   M E

   Chronicle Chroma

   2025

KOKOMO ~

 

   puppy dog

MATISSE AT WAR ~

 

R E A D   M E

     Citadel Press

     2025

PABLO NERUDA ~

 from Ode to Walt Whitman

Without

disdain

for the gifts

of the earth,

the capital's

abundant curves,

or the purple

initial

of wisdom,

you

taught me

to be an American,

you lifted my eyes

to books,

toward

the treasure

of the grain:

broad poet,

across the

clarity

of the plains,

you made me see

the high mountain

as my guardian.

translated from the Spanish 

by Martin Espada

___________________________

Pablo Neruda