Through more than two hundred poems, Joe Donald Johnson captures a wide variety of emotions, experiences, and energies. His topics, which stretch from a celebration of the majesty of the rock-lake dance to a look back at his own artistic evolution, show the connections between the natural world and the rich inner lives of the humans his poetry energizes and inspires.

Some of the poems in If It Were contain Johnson’s own musings on modernity, conflict, society, humanity, and life itself. Others provide intimate studies of characters in both Johnson’s memories and his imagination. He writes of Barkboy the Newser and a woman who can’t help but nod when talking on the phone. There’s Lafwerk with the windmill name and the lethargic Lazarus Leppernatch. Argmont is three feet tall, and Half Hermit Judney ghost-speaks in St. Luke Park. Each new whimsical or tragic figure has something important to reveal about struggle, survival, and loss.

As Johnson takes you back to Yosemite in the year 1851 or to contemporary Barcelona, he never forgets the human element of his work. As you laugh and cry along with Johnson and his characters, you’ll discover something truly special about human nature.