A Brief Introduction to Johanna

NATURE

The mud flats lie in flat mud places -
Here grows the moss! Here fly the bees!
The young deer runs, the lion chases,
Devours him 'neath the swaying trees.

The hilltops turn to mountain ridges -
O, sweet blue sky! O, lovely sight!
The lizards slink 'cross natural bridges
And come into your tent at night.

The fish are swimming, shining, leaping -
The beach so white! The mist so grey!
The tide comes softly inward creeping
And carries all the sand away.


TWANGA

Read the writings of the ages
Stick your fingers in the snow
Feed the llamas in their cages
But wait - before you go
Hear the twanga, twanga, twanga
As it drifts back o'er the lea...
Since I don't know what a lea is
Come a-twangin' back to me.

This is just my way of saying
That I do remember you
And those noises that your nose made
As we wandered through the zoo.
It went twanga, twanga, twanga
Ev'ry moment, night and day
'Til you had that operation
And the twanga went away.

I don't hear the twanga, twanga,
Twanga, twanga anymore -
Only heartstrings, tugga tugga,
When I think of times before.

CITYSONNET

When I was dark with dreams and twenty-three
I built myself a city full of heat
Between two wintry rivers to the sea;
On great white wings I passed from street to street.
Electric stars that lit a narrow sky,
Vibrations deep beneath the solid ground,
And how my racing heart would sleep defy
Convinced me it was joy that I had found.
So, filling up the destiny I'd made,
I loved a scarred and troubled city boy
And learned to move through shadows, unafraid,
Protected by my gilded soul...but joy -
    With fragile, sunlit hands - sent spring again
    Upon the wind, and touched me even then.