{"id":8291,"date":"2023-04-18T17:01:09","date_gmt":"2023-04-18T17:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/?p=8291"},"modified":"2023-04-18T17:01:09","modified_gmt":"2023-04-18T17:01:09","slug":"the-willow-tree-poems-by-michael-lee-johnson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/the-willow-tree-poems-by-michael-lee-johnson\/","title":{"rendered":"The Willow Tree Poems by Michael Lee Johnson"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\r\nI Age <\/strong>(V2)\r\n\r\nArthritis and aging make it hard,\r\nI walk gingerly, with a cane, and walk\r\nslow, bent forward, fear threats,\r\nfalls, fear denouement\u2500\r\nI turn pages, my family albums\r\nbecome a task.\r\nBut I can still bake and shake,\r\nsugar cookies, sweet potato,\r\nlemon meringue pies.\r\nAlone, most of my time,\r\nbut never on Sundays,\r\nfriends and communion, \r\nUnited Church of Canada. \r\nI chug a few down,\r\nlove my Blonde Canadian Pale Ale,\r\nCopenhagen long cut a pinch of snuff.\r\nI can still dance the Boogie-woogie,\r\nLindy Hop in my living room,\r\nwith my nursing care home partner.\r\nAging has left me with youthful dimples, \r\nbut few long-term promises.\r\n<\/pre>\n
 
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\r\nCrypt in the Sky<\/strong> (V2)\r\n\r\nOrder me up,\r\nno one knows\r\nwhere this crypt in the sky\r\nlike a condo on the 5th floor\r\nsuite don\u2019t sell me out\r\nover the years;\r\nplease don\u2019t bury me beneath \r\nthis ground, don\u2019t let me decay\r\ninside my time pine casket.\r\nDon\u2019t let me burn to cremate\r\nskull last to turn to ashes.\r\nTreasure me high where no one goes,\r\nno arms reach, stretch.\r\nBuilding for the Centuries\r\nthen just let it fall.\r\nThese few precious dry bones\r\npreserved for you, sealed in the cloud\r\nno relocation is necessary,\r\nno flowers need to be planted,\r\nno dusting off that dust each year,\r\nno sinners can reach this high.\r\nJesus\u2019 heaven, Jesus\u2019 sky.\r\n\r\nNote:  Dedicated to the passing of beloved Katie Balaskas.<\/em>\r\n<\/pre>\n
 
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\r\nPriscilla, Let\u2019s Dance<\/strong> (V2)\r\n\r\nPriscilla, Puerto Rican songbird,\r\nan island jungle dancer, Cuban heritage,\r\nrare parrot, a singer survivor near extinction.\r\nShe sounds off on notes, music her\r\nvocals hearing background bongos, \r\npiano keys, Cuban horns.\r\nQuote the verse patterns,\r\nquilt the pieces skirt bleeds,\r\nthen blend colors to light a tropical prism.\r\nSteamy Salsa, a little twist, cha-cha-cha\r\ndancing rhythms of passions, sacred these islands.\r\nEverything she has is movement\r\ntucked nice and tight but explosive.\r\nShe mimics these ancient sounds\r\nshowing her ribs, her naked body.\r\nHer ex-lovers remain nightmares\r\npointed daggers, so criminal, so stereotyped.\r\nPriscilla purifies her dreams with repentance.\r\nShe pours her heart out, everything\r\ncondensed to the bone, petite boobies,\r\ncheap bras, flamboyant G-strings.\r\nHer vocabulary is that of sin and Catholicism.\r\nIsland hurricanes form her own Jesus\r\nslants of hail, detonate thunder,\r\nthe collapse of hell in her hands after midnight. \r\nPriscilla remains a background rabble-rouser,\r\nalmost remorseful, no apologies\r\nto the counsel of Judas\r\nwherever he hangs.\r\n<\/pre>\n
 
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\r\nWillow Tree Poem<\/strong> (V2)\r\n\r\n W<\/strong>ind dancers\r\ndancing to the\r\nwillow wind,\r\nlance-shaped leaves\r\nswaying right to left\r\nall day long.\r\nI\u2019m depressed.\r\nBirds hanging on-\r\nbleaching feathers\r\nout into\r\nthe sun.\r\n<\/pre>\n
 
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\nMichael Lee Johnson<\/strong> lived ten years in Canada during the Vietnam era. Today he is a poet in the greater Chicagoland area, IL.  He has 283 YouTube poetry videos. Michael Lee Johnson is an internationally published poet in 44 countries, a song lyricist, has several published poetry books, has been nominated for 6 Pushcart Prize awards, and 6 Best of the Net nominations. He is editor-in-chief of 3 poetry anthologies, all available on Amazon, and has several poetry books and chapbooks. He has over 453 published poems. Michael is the administrator of 6 Facebook Poetry groups. Member Illinois State Poetry Society: http:\/\/www.illinoispoets.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n
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    I Age (V2) Arthritis and aging make it hard, I walk gingerly, with a cane, and walk slow, bent forward, fear threats, falls, fear denouement\u2500 I turn pages, my family albums become a task. But I can still bake and shake, sugar cookies, sweet potato, lemon meringue pies. Alone, most of my time, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8292,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[960,808,796,366,401,43],"tags":[18,136,3],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8291"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8291"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8298,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8291\/revisions\/8298"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}