The Flapper Press Café: The Poetry of Michael Lee Johnson

By Annie Newcomer:

The Flapper Press Café is honored to feature the work of poets from around the globe. Today we share the work of Michael Lee Johnson.

Michael Lee Johnson

Michael Lee Johnson lived ten years in Canada during the Vietnam era and is a dual citizen of the United States and Canada. Today he is a poet, freelance writer, amateur photographer, and small business owner in Itasca, DuPage County, Illinois. Mr. Johnson is published in more than 2,013 new publications, and his poems have appeared in 40 countries; he edits and publishes ten poetry sites. He has been nominated for 2 Pushcart Prize awards for poetry in 2015 and 3 Best of the Net (2016, 2017, 2018). Check out his over two hundred twenty-four poetry videos now on YouTube. Mr. Johnson is a member of the Illinois State Poetry Society and is editor-in-chief of the poetry anthologies Moonlight Dreamers of Yellow Haze and Dandelion in a Vase of Roses, and Warriors with Wings: The Best in Contemporary Poetry.

We reached out to Michael to ask him more about his influences and inspiration.

FP: How young were you when you first realized you could be a poet?

MLJ: I started to write in 1967, 52 years ago; I’m now 72.5 years old. I went into exile due to the Vietnam War era; then, typewriters, no internet, type poems one by one (no photo copies), international coupons, snail mail only, stamps, 6-month wait, and 95 out of 100 never responded, much less made a comment about your poems—just a photocopied rejection letter. So for many years I continued to write but didn’t send the poems out. In 2007, with the advent of the internet, I revised old poems and created new poems and have now been published in 38 different countries.

FP: How do you give birth to a poem? How is it conceived and delivered?

MLJ: A poem is a spirit that comes out of frustration, or naturally if I'm drunk or looking at a beloved willow tree in the summer wind, thunder, and rain. How do you deliver a baby poem in clinical conditions like this without the nurses thinking you're insane?

FP: How long does it take you to write a poem?

MLJ: How long does it take you to live your life, or just one day of it, or even one hour? I have some poems on first write that have stood the test of time, I have other poems with editorial suggestions and my changes that have lead up to eight revisions on one poem that comes to mind. A poem can be stagnant or ever evolving. I have a few boxes full of old partial poems, always there open for review or to die on old yellow paper or napkins from 10–35 years ago. Where do I place time on these things? Life chances, events unfold, social structures evolve, so should poems, but some things remain where they were born, to stay there with a smile of justice done indeed. I have computer files and old boxes full of what I call “starter poems.”

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This is the story poem of the Cocopah Indian tribe and their journey over the years. The River People descended from the greater Yuman-speaking area, which occupied lands along the Colorado River, and the Cocopah Indian tribe had no written language. However, historical records have been passed on orally and by outside visitors.

Native I Am, Cocopa (V3)

Now once-great events fading

into seamless history,

I am a mother, proud.

My native numbers are few.

In my heart digs many memories

forty-one relatives left in 1937.

Decay is all left of their bones, memories.

I pinch my dark skin.

I dig earthworms

farm dirt from my fingertips

grab native

Baja and Southwestern California,

its soil and sand wedged between my spaced teeth.

I see the dancing prayers of many gods.

I am Cocopa, a remnant of the Yuman family.

I extend my mouth into forest fires

Colorado rivers, trout-filled mountain streams.

I survive on corn, melons, and

pumpkins, mesquite beans.

I still dance in grass skirts

drink a hint of red Sonora wine.

I am a mother, proud.

I am parchment from animal earth.

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This is the story of "sin" in the big city. The movements on a night. Life reflects our behaviors, or is it our behaviors that reflect our lives? Behaviors without redemption reflect our beginning, but surely lead to our ending.

Juice Box Girl

(After Midnight Moments)

I'm a juice box girl,

squeeze me, play me

like an accordion,

box-shaped, but gagged edges.

Breathe me inside out,

I'm nude, fruity, fractured,

strawberry melon,

nightshade wine.

Chicago, 3:00 a.m.

somewhere stranded

someone's balcony

memories undefined,

you will find me there

stretched naked, doing