Selected Poems
by Mike Johnson
edited by Jack Ross
A meaty and satisfying selection of the work of one of New Zealand’s most preeminent and prolific poets, tracing the development of his work from the seventies to today.
- ISBN/978-1-991083-00-5Binding type: PaperbackPublisherdate: 03/07/2023Pages: 208 pagesLanguage: EnglishSize: Width 148 mm, Height 210 mm
‘Johnson is one of New Zealand’s most accomplished and inventive writers, at one with the word, its power, its airy fitness and everyday solidities, its resourcefulness, its craft.’ Siobhan Harvey, Winner of the Kathleen Grattan poetry award, 2019
‘The immense complexity of human relationships, social, sexual, and everyday are at the heart of much of Mike’s best poetry. However, there’s an almost equal pull towards the empyrean: the cosmic mysteries of nature and the visible world, the beauty of the birds, trees, and beaches which surround him in his longtime home-base, Waiheke Island.’ Jack Ross, editor of Poetry New Zealand (2014-2019)
‘[Johnson finds] just the right formulation to deliver a descriptive vitalism that is open, alert, tentative, ambulatory, elegant, palpable.’ David Eggleton, Poet Laureate, 2019-2022