OLD VERSES

About the Book

Some thirty-odd years ago I discovered the beauty of poetry while an undergraduate student at Drury University in Springfield, Missouri. Now, after 5 children and 6 grandchildren, I have returned to my passion for writing. Having kept most of my work from those early days, I began the process of unboxing and organizing—tweaking a word here and a phrase there—finally choosing those I wanted for this volume. These poems are as much a part of me now as they were back then. I hope you enjoy them.

Remarkably talented—Johnson´s writing has the grace, the music, the ability to surprise. A new poet with a splendid future.
—Gwendolyn Brooks, Pulitzer Prize winning poet

Paul Johnson brings a significant new voice to contemporary American poetry. His poetic intuition is impeccable. Regardless the topic, Johnson copes with the myriad problems and makes the right decisions each poem demands. OLD VERSES is an intriguing collection of work as one sees the poet as a young man, crafting his own unique style of writing.
—Dr. James Bynum, Author and Professor of English & Linguistics
—from the Foreword.

About the Author

Paul M. Johnson was born in Waltham, Massachusetts, though he and his family moved when he was a year old (‘before I could get a good accent’), ending up in Southeast Missouri at the age of 3. Other than 4 years of college, he has lived there ever since. Paul graduated from Drury University in 1975 with a B.A. in English and a B.S. in Business Administration. He received the Departmental Distinction Award in Creative Writing. This is his first published work of poetry.