Brian Johnston
Brian Johnston Poems
What are the things that add Zest to your life,
What moves your heart into Joy,
What kind of remedy mollifies Strife,
What dials you back from Annoy?
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Do you think that you want to succeed on this site,
Does it matter at all how you get there?
Most people already make use of some trick,
Still you need to be shrewd for your effort to stick.
...
Imagine, if you can my dear, my body is
Like water that surrounds you, gentle in the morning
As you rise to consciousness' surface
And take your first breath of the new day,
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true desert beauty
somewhere lies a hidden well -
all seasons' big bang
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Brian Johnston Biography
READ THIS! SOME OF IT IS ACTUALLY FUNNY! 10/24/14 NAVIGATING MY POEMS-A USERS GUIDE The titles of my poems all begin with the category they fall into from my perspective. For example any poem that begins with PH for Poemhunter.com is a poem that I've written since early November of 2013 when I first joined Poemhunter. There are only 44 poems that do not have the PH in their titles. My earliest poems all are preceded by the category BEFORE COLLEGE, the next time grouping are poems written while I was still in college called COLLEGE, and the next two groups cover FARM poetry and poems about various love interests called GF for girlfriends. All the rest, (with PH in the title) are poems written after I joined Poemhunter.com. On 10/02/14 other members of this site helped me move into the group of 10 most popular poets on Poemhunter for the first time (and on 10/10/14, I was #7 also for the first time) . Wow! On 10/20/14 I have reached #6 for the first time and #5 seems to be a possibility? Although joining this group of poets clearly is not just a measure of the quality of one's poetry, still it is special and I thank Poemhunter's poet members for so honoring me. Today I have 233 points on PH's Popularity Poll which virtually guarantees me historically a place in the top ten group! Popularity on poemhunter is also a measure of how active a poet is, commenting on other's poems for example being a major factor. I personally salute members who serve the community in any way and promise to continue to serve PH in any way I can, into the future. Thank you so much PH members for this recognition of my growth as a poet on your site. BIOGRAPHY I started writing poetry my Senior year in High School and the Muse still strikes on occasion. I also wrote some short stories in college but poetry is my ongoing interest. I enjoy tennis, swimming and backpacking and have become a YMCA member in recent years. My short term memory has taken a hit but I'm physically stronger than I have ever been! It's nice to be able to see improvement in at least one area of my life. I was in the US Peace Corps twice. The first time was from 1964 to 1966 in Tanzania, East Africa where I supervised the installation of small bridges and culverts on feeder roads in an attempt to encourage local farmers to produce more. I also did some survey work and was lucky enough to spend nearly a month surveying future roads for tourists on the floor of Ngorongoro Crater, an extinct volcano whose rim exceeds 10,000 ft in places and is over ten miles in diameter. The crater floor is a natural game park nearly 2,000 ft. below the rim. The poem 'Venice' was written on my trip home from East Africa. A 2nd Peace Corps stint was in Malaysia where I taught a two year Physics syllabus to very gifted students in Kuantan, on the east coast of Malaysia from 1970 to 1972. I don't think I ever worked so hard in my life as I did teaching those kids. It was a very rewarding experience. I wrote a number of poems while I was at the University of Oklahoma and wound up getting a Master's in Physics before I left for Malaysia in 1970. The poems 'Venice' and 'California Montage' both won 'Honorable Mentions' in state poetry contests while I was at OU. My Masters in Physics specialized in Superconductivity. I was again very fortunate in working on devices used by USGS to do a study of how the earth's magnetic field has changed through time. This study revealed that the earth's magnetic field has reversed itself many times through history and now the magnetic field found in the rock enclosing fossils can actually be used to help determine a fossils age. I also the wrote the computer program that USGS used to analyze their core sample data. When money dried up for for scientific research under Nixon, my next job was working as one of the first video game designers using microprocessor logic. My first game, a copy of a game done completely in hardware called 'Bi-Plane' was perhaps the first commercially sold video game using a microcomputer chip, the Intel 8080, as it's heart and an Altair Home Computer Kit that a friend and I built as a development station. I wound up spending nearly 12 years designing games for companies like Extensys, Ramtek, Atari and Warner Brothers. My last programming job was designing a micro-computer driven KSU for TIE Communications which was my most successful programming job. The final phone system sold over a million units and its program contained over 40,000 computer instructions. This assembly language program took me almost 4 years to write before the last of several versions was completed. The remainder of my career has been in both farming and in real estate management. My father worked largely in farming related businesses and when he became ill I got heavily involved with our farms in South Dakota and Oklahoma, which gave birth to the poems 'A Walk Near Blunt, ' 'Driving Alone Through the Sand Hills of Nebraska, ' and 'Like a Farmer.' I am retired now and live in Silicon Valley which I have called home since moving here in 1973. A PERSONAL NOTE! My poems can be for fun, but mostly I write to communicate, to learn about how others perceive me and my thoughts. When I think about the negative aspects of my personality or how people view me, the qualities I think might give me some negative votes are (not in any special order) : 1. Take myself too seriously (With all due humility, I am perfectly serious!) 2. Am too egotistical, not humble enough, make absolute statements! (That couldn't possibly be true!) 3. Argue too forcefully (I just enjoy debate, any debate really, tell me what side you want to take, I'll take the other!) 4. Have had too good a life (Yes, I have had a wonderful life, though not without pain. All my pain has made me a better person though, so my ex-wives say anyway!) 5. Am too prosperous! (I have been very fortunate in my career and investments as well. There was 'Rite Aid' of course) News flash! Even Rite Aid is coming back (from $70/share to under $0.50/ share and now rocketing back toward $10/share) . Buy and hold actually works sometimes! I am so blessed. 6. Always sure I am right. (Not true but I understand how casual acquaintances might think that) 7. Am too good looking (Hey that's genetics if it's even true. Sorry not my fault) 8. Am shamelessly Christian (True, but that does not mean I am not ashamed of Christianity as it is practiced by almost everyone except me! That's a joke of course!) 9. Confuse sharing feelings with talking about myself (True but perhaps still an honest mistake) 10. A poor listener (Maybe but not sure that's fair. If you volunteer nothing, does that make me a poor listener?) 11. Crave other's good opinion of me (Perhaps, but working on that one at least) ? HEY UP YOURS ANONYMOUS CRITICS! I wonder if that's better? Please like me please? Oh, I can't help myself! 12. OK, Brier Edwards complained that I'm a whiny K*** A** when people say they are going to put one of my poems in the 'My Favorite Poems List' category and then don't do it. To that one I plead guilty as charged. Hey a 10.0 is nothing compared to one of those! This does prove though that I respond to reader input! 13. Suggested by Lora Colon: 'If you don't know you have faults then that is really a problem! ' Guilty as charged! My faults don't exist because of God's Grace. Yes, you and I know I still sin every day (and I care what you think, I do) , but the Big Guy and I are just fine. I just love Christian Paradox! 14. Am truly addicted to Dr. Pepper! I am so ashamed. (But does that really cause people to vote negatively on my picture? Hard to imagine) Keep me in your prayers on this one. Two weeks are coming up of (almost) no Dr. Peppers. (Just slipped twice!) 15. Called to mind by Daniel Brick. Tendency to focus so completely on something that I avoid responsibilities to friends, paying taxes, even eating (but not Dr. Pepper of course) ! Again guilty as charged I'm afraid! Anything else missing that you would like to add to my list Bri, Lora, Daniel, anyone? Go on take your best shot! : -) I really am curious! In any case, thanks for your interest in my biography and for visiting my collection of poems! If you think this list is embarrassing, you should see the list that both of my ex-wives had on me!)
The Best Poem Of Brian Johnston
Ph: Haiku: Quasi-Traditional #07
powerless poet -
for death is apparition,
ghost like Donald Drumpfs
Brian Johnston Comments
There has been another passing of note besides the poet Maya Angelou who, though grievously wounded by life, bounced back to assert her place in Poetry's Hall of Fame and in the hearts of us all. The poet Beauteous Victory, who graced Poemhunter with her passion and her pain has also vanished from our lives, but far more grievously. We do not know her real name, can not commiserate personally with her anymore, or speak to her shared heart by writing poems to her poems. The only part of her that lives now on Poemhunter for any of us now are the 3 poems that she shared with Neethu Panicker and myself that she was not able to erase, and did not ask us to take down. Beauteous Victory too was a black woman with great heart, a poet who achieved the upper echelons of Poemhunter's popularity poll. Though we may never know her fate, her voice abides in our hearts. She is now and will be missed. She is now and will be still loved for many years by her friends on Poemhunter.
Where has the old bag of wind been recently?? He sure has not been paying attention to me!! Hmmmph!!
Indeed, an experienced poet capturing a never ending issue. Maturity, both in tone and in diction perfectly displayed. well done sir!
Wonderfully composed........... Indeed it is always a wonder as to why they cross the road. All their paramount features captured into this nice poem.......... Bravo!
TO LOVE WE BELONG...... yes we all belong to love- the magic that makes you feel like you can do anything... well composed sir. keep it up.
I LOVE YOU BECAUSE....... indeed love poems have always fascinated meas it is one of the most wonderful gift offered to us by our creator. Mr. Johnston has simply elaborated his feelings about it in simple and comprehensible diction. Like Langston Hughes, he has employed short lines to put across his message. Well done great poet!
Brian Johnston Quotes
1. Doubt is not the absence of faith, Certainty is! therefore 2. It is impossible to be a true Christian and not have doubts.
For love is not about just getting needs met by another, No, love is more like a laser's coherent beam…. For in reflecting back a portion of what is given, The power of what is being created grows Until it can cut through the hardest steel And span the gulf between galaxies.
I remember - were there coyotes? Howls that laced peyote nights. Desert air stirred pastel high notes Cliffs that danced with ghostly lights.
Adventures of the days to come hanging like a white sheet Strung between trees in an unwired, impoverished village, Only imagination powers the projector of what can be.
Do more, bear witness of your weakness to others, Not to mortify your own flesh (God knows you're sorry) But so that those with ears to hear (also God's gift) Perchance will themselves not feel so alone.
All is change my love, Everything we hold dear Vanishes and then reappears, Briefly, in other bedrooms, Like warmth from a fireplace… Only the stars in lover's eyes Remain the same, until they change.
Things were going pretty good, When, by landing on the hood A sparrow made a mockery of all knowing.
Yet, as light passes venetian blinds, Like music through classical guitar strings, Touching the softened form of familiar Love, The rods of the eye wander adagio Along the bars of a century-old sight before rising,
Ardean hooked me with his music, I swallowed that bait whole, so deep, It have would killed me to retrieve the hook.
It is good to believe in yourself, to have confidence that you can row your own boat, but your pride should not be so great that you are not aware that your boat floats on the gifts and caring of other people.
Our personal power and happiness rests on understanding this: Attempts to get others to meet our expectations will generally fail, but if you successfully address the smallest flaw in your own nature, the whole world will instantly be a better place.
Such an inscrutable blackness Is called a black body; Acceptance of its existence Gave birth to uncertainty Blurred the determinism Of an earlier age… And color returned to God's cheeks.
How is listening to God being radical? I am instead one of the most conservative men on earth!
Questions, and the lack of fear in asking them, is how God knows that you love Him. The fact that you live to ask more questions is how you know God loves you!
Question everything, including your own questions!
To live as if you believe that your soul is immortal is to fully embrace your humanity.
What I say may not always make sense but I love the fact that I've said it and that someone somewhere actually considers its viability.
If I just die and there is nothing, what is there to be afraid of. And if God is real and He judges us, can I not count on His grace and Christ's blood? What then do I have to fear for God is with me!
Being a poet is about aspiring to truth and beauty, it is not about being BEAUTIFUL, about being TRUTH, so perhaps simply acknowledging the fledging poet in me does make me a poet? Is not a a baby bird that has just emerged from the egg still a bird, even though he cannot yet fly!
Is desired behavior to be considered normal? Are we not all forever sinners at heart? Does not our sinful nature put forever the 'healthy, normal' behavior we aspire to just out of reach? Does not humility require that we acknowledge our sinful hearts so that true humility is also just out of reach.? If not for God's Grace (even if God himself is mankind invention) , true reason for despair! If God (and God's Grace) is man's invention, then Poetry itself is man's salvation and It's mysteries forever beyond us. Praise God!
He who eats pizza will be hungry again, but 'he who drinks the water of life will never be thirsty again.' Christ was talking about beer wasn't he?
Thoughts on terrorism. Conversations with Abekah Emmanuel... I can suggest some themes that I feel are relevant, in math we distinguish between things that are necessary to prove something is true and things that are sufficient to prove something is true. It is a nice way to organize your thoughts and lends force to your arguments... I think that man's drive to simplify his life in the face of incredible complexity is something we all feel and strive for. But when we make simplicity our God this gives rise to the potential for incredible evil. One of man's greatest tools in his desire for a simple life is the concept of putting things into categories. I am tempted to say that this concept really almost defines for me what it means to be human, it's not 'I think therefore I am' so much as it is 'I categorize, and this makes me human.' Friends, Enemies, Meat is good, Vegetables are bad, etc. What contributes to a man becoming a terrorist I suspect is a lack of respect or perhaps an educational blind spot. He cannot allow complexity to exist without feeling overwhelmed. It takes a real man, a mature man, not an anxious child, to get that variety is a gift from God and not a threat to the wisdom of our ancestors. If the modern world threatens our religion or our respect for our ancestors, surely that most likely that means our own understanding of our religion or of our ancestors is defective. Most people hate terrorists I suspect for their lack of focus, like in this country where blacks are overwhelmingly killed by other blacks, not whites, even though disadvantaged minority rage thinks it is rage against the advantaged majority, it is to some extent at least a form of self hatred. The minority secretly hates their own ancestors for leaving them in the position that they find themselves in. Terrorism is, I suspect, only a very small threat to the US and brings a lot more grief to the country that hosts the terrorist. The problem it presents America is that our nuclear weapons are largely ineffective against it. Who do you retaliate against? It seems that drones will continue to be a large part of America's answer. A political enemy once identified can be fairly easily eliminated today at least. No amount of personal body guards can protect you against drone attack and since few people are injured when compared to a real war, not many people care when a known terrorist is killed for it means that the terrorist will wind up killing fewer of his own people. The only real way to address evil in the world is make sure that you yourself are not part of it. Terrorism shames the people whose disadvantages it attempts to address, and so it seems to me a dead end strategy.
In Eliot's 'Prufrock' he is famously quoted for the strange musical nature of the lines 'let us go then, you and I, when evening is spread out against the sky like a patient, etherized upon the table...' If this line is not a joke on his fawning followers to see how obsequious they really are, then it should be. As a future editor of Eliot's work called 'Poetry As A Joke' I have rewritten these famous lines to bring poetry, music. and humor back to his verse... 'Let us give up rhyme and health, Where the ruptured sewage truck has spilled its wealth, Inhale Spring's road side potential for poppies...' BJ
'To become an artist you need two things at least, to know yourself and to love your weaknesses. Art is not simply book learning. I think it is more that life is always teaching you things that you don't really know you have learned until something prompts you to express yourself. That is when art happens.'
Humility is my only virtue! But I am very proud to think that at least I got one thing right!
Brian Johnston Popularity
Brian Johnston Popularity
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4/27/2024 1:46:38 AM # 1.0.0.1119
Brian Johnson is one of the most gifted, honest and knowledgeable poets alive today. I am bountifully blessed and highly honored to have him as a poetic mentor and friend!