Orrick Glenday Johns (born June 2, 1887 - July 8, 1946) was an American poet and playwright and was part of the literary group that included T. S. Eliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingway. He was active in the Communist Party.
Johns was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to George Sibley Johns and Minnehaha McDearmon. He lost a leg as a child in St. Louis to a streetcar accident. He won a poetry contest in 1912 hosted by The Lyric Year, despite competing against Edna St. Vincent Millay's famed Renascence, a victory he felt was misjudged. His first wife was the artist Margarite Frances Baird, also known as Peggy Baird. His second wife was Carolyn Blackman. She was plagued by anorexia and mental illness, and was probably the love of his life. They had a daughter, Charis. His third wife was Doria Berton, mother of his daughter, Deborah. His death was by suicide in Connecticut.
He is mentioned in Kenneth Rexroth's poem, "Thou Shalt Not Kill", as "hopping into the surf on his one leg".
His works include:
1917 - Asphalt and Other Poems
1920 - Black Branches, A Book of Poetry and Plays
1925 - Blindfold, a novel
1926 - Wild Plum: Lyrics, with Sonnets to Charis
1937 - Time of Our Lives: The Story of My Father and Myself, autobiography
I—The Song Of Youth
This is the song of youth,
This is the cause of myself;
...
There's nothing very beautiful and nothing very gay
About the rush of faces in the town by day,
But a light tan cow in a pale green mead,
That is very beautiful, beautiful indeed . . .
...
In the very early morning when the light was low
She got all together and she went like snow,
Like snow in the springtime on a sunny hill,
And we were only frightened and can't think still.
...
Would I were on the sea-lands,
Where winds know how to sting;
And in the rocks at midnight
The lost long murmurs sing.
...