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Best Poems Written by Wallace Johnston

Below are the all-time best Wallace Johnston poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

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Pandora Redux

PANDORA REDUX

There are songs I must not listen to
And poems I cannot read,
Photographs and letters
Which cause a heart to bleed
Some found on yellowed paper
	In books to hold a place
		To guide returning readers
			At some later date
Stacks of faded letters 
 Writ in a firmer hand
Pressed blossoms
	loveingly bound with ribbons

Or kept in stacks in
Dusty boxes
On the top shelf 
Of a rarely opened closet.
Magic carpets come to mind
	With power to evoke the sounds, smells
 and places of the past
	long since passed into reverie
Handle with Care.. There Be Tigers……….

Details | Wallace Johnston Poem

Cold

WINTER IN SHELBURNE BAY

Snow drifts, far as the eye can see -
Flakes as big as maple leaves.
Wind whipped ice crystals sting the eyes
Like smoke from frozen campfires.
God, I bet it is cold in Amarillo.

Details | Wallace Johnston Poem

Polaroid Snapshots

THOUGHT LETTERS


I wrote a thousand letters in my mind
about the clouds I saw,
the songs I heard,
the thoughts I wished to share.

I wrote them in a plane, on a road, or in
a quiet time alone.

They were unsent, unstamped,
or hurried on their way.

Because . . .

Because . . .

Because . . .

	ADDRESS


I found the address
long saved, newly acted on.

I found reason to communicate
to reach out.

To put aside misgivings and fears
harbored over many years
as barriers between.

I found a willingness to renew
to talk, unite and
make up for lost times.

I found that all the days and thoughts
apart were simply time alone
unnecessary penance for imagined wrongs

and some for reality.



I found . . . you.

	GUARDED THOUGHTS


Far easier
to send a
quarter card--
a joking note,
a light, un-serious
communication,

than to send the deep
thoughts of my heart.
The card, the note
the hasty scrawl
can be received
or not
with little loss
of self.

The sending of ones self
will not survive
the possibility of
folding,
spindling,
mutilating,
experiences,

And so is withheld
until sufficient
sacrificial goats
have been attended to.

	TASTE


It's nice to see an old friend
from the past
nicely turned out

It's like a vote of confidence
for one's own
judgment

But does it really verify
good judgment
or just

constant taste?