Joe Donald Johnson is a poet, composer, and occasional artist. His poetry collection, Warp oems, is a small volume with war as its general subject. Most of these poems are unchanged from a 1974 edition of this work, written during the Vietnam conflict. That war produced a disturbing fissure in the American population. Johnson observed these struggles of ill will, of warlike and peacelike, in the society around him. The final 18 pages are new and show the dates of their creation. They are not focused on a particular conflict, but rather on conflict in various and ghastly aspects. Caring and hope crawl through portions of the entire work.