The formal idea for this poem started with hypertext writing—I wanted to imagine alternate ways that such nonlinear writing could be created, and I thought maybe new kinds of punctuation could do so. When I realized the spiraling text was the “thicket” of language, I wrote a nonlinear “fairy tale” about that thicket and our responses to it. I encourage you to try out the form for yourself.
"Johnson’s poetry also attempts to redefine how people see Compton—not as a violent and evil place but as somewhere filled with heartbreak and grief. In his poem, 'Smokey,' from his newest collection Imperial Liquor, he contrasts the fact that the hardened men in Compton when he was growing up would listen to mostly love songs.”
Poetry Daily stands with the Black community. We oppose racism, oppression, and police brutality. We will continue to amplify diverse voices in the poetry world. Black Lives Matter.
"Real poetry, Itō reminds us, doesn’t only come from a poet simply saying something—it also comes from the ways that the poet resists the ordinary processes of saying. The writer unlocks new potential by subverting, manipulating, and defamiliarizing the patterns that structure our logic and expression. Poems need to be more than a series of simple, ordinary statements strung together."
