Bryan Stanley Johnson

Living a whole life has three conditions:
absorbing work which demands and brings fulfilment,
a group of friends with whom to excahnge minds,
and a full love to be lost in all the time.
...

My son finds occupation
in almost nothing, in everything:
my soapy penitential toothpaste,
his mother's loosened hair
...

Urinating in a urinal
I try at first directly
to jet down a fruitfly
then see random sprinkling
...

He smashed his hand
in opening a door for her,
and less pain than
embarrassment shrieked through him.
...

The decorously informative church
Guide to Sex suggested that any urge
could well be controlled by playing tennis:
and the game provided also "many
...

My awkward grossness grows: I go down, through

I maintain my self in the conviction
that I have as much to say as others
...

In the ember days of my last free summer,
here I lie, outside myself, watching
the gross body eating a poor curry:
satisfied at what I have done, scared of what
...

I have no children:

But tonight a poem came
in which a small child,
...

It is usual
for people in this country
(out of pretended respect
but rather from an impertinent curiosity)
...

The trawl of unquiet mind drops astern

Great lucid streamers bar the sky ahead
(bifurcated banners at a tourney)
...

Why do we lie

’Why do we lie,’ she questioned, her warm eyes
on the grey Autumn wind and its coursing,
...

if only for ten minutes

after the mass feeding of schoolchildren
after the careful inanity of the staff
...

Kim, composite of all my loves,
less real than most, more real than all;
of my making, all the good and
some of the bad, yet of yourself;
...

In all faith, we did our part:
generated punctually, prepared adequately,
ejected promptly,
and swam in the approved manner
...

Walking, snow falling, it is possible
to focus at various distances
in turn on separate flakes, sharply engage
the attention at several spatial points:
...

Descended to the shore, odd how we left
the young girl with us to herself, and went
straight to examine the stratified cliffs,
forgot her entirely in our interest.
...